Dijon, France, June 18th 2008 – Cancer patients in eastern France now have access to advanced image-guided radiotherapy treatments with the arrival of the first Trilogy® linear accelerator in the country. The versatile and advanced treatment machine, supplied by radiotherapy technology and market leader Varian Medical Systems, has been unveiled by French health minister Roselyne Bachelot in a special inauguration ceremony.
Professor Philippe Maingon, head of radiation oncology at the Georges-François Leclerc Cancer Center in Dijon, said, “We were honored that the health minister was able to attend our unveiling ceremony and acknowledge the vital role of radiotherapy in treating cancer patients.” Carrying out the opening ceremony, Madame Bachelot praised the work of the Georges-François Leclerc Cancer Center and acknowledged the key role radiotherapy plays in treating cancer in France.
The Trilogy device becomes the hospital’s third Varian linear accelerator, enabling the center to treat more patients with more advanced treatments, including stereotactic radiosurgery. “The Trilogy enables us to carry out very precise image-guided stereotactic treatments in addition to our established program of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments,” said Professor Maingon. “This is an important step forward in bringing advanced and targeted radiotherapy to patients in this location.”
Professor Maingon said his team will begin using the Trilogy for prostate cancer treatments, using the advanced cone-beam CT imaging capabilities to validate the accuracy of patient set-up positioning prior to treatment in a dose escalation program. Doctors will also use the new machine to take part in a national hypo-fractionation clinical research trial involving hypo-fractionated stereotactic treatment of lung tumors. “The same approach will also be used for patients with liver tumors, either primary or metastatic, which are not treatable either by surgery or chemotherapy,” added Professor Maingon.
The Georges-François Leclerc Cancer Center has been one of two leading hospitals to host Varian’s European IMRT School in recent years. “It is a pioneering hospital carrying out some advanced, highly-conformal radiotherapy treatments and we are delighted to be working with them to introduce image-guided and stereotactic treatments for the benefit of their patients,” says Youssef Rihane, Varian’s country manager in France. The hospital treats 1200 patients each year and serves cancer patients within 200 kilometers.
A fully-accessorized Trilogy device, equipped with Varian’s On-Board Imager® for fast and effective image-guidance, is capable of offering all standard radiation therapies as well as the most advanced treatments such as IMRT, image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and whole-body stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), which are all aimed at increasing precision and improving patient outcomes.
Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786 526068, neil.madle@varian.com
About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 4,600 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 60 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.
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