Bern, Switzerland, February 25th 2011 – A leading Swiss cancer clinic has begun delivering advanced radiotherapy treatments using the TrueBeam™ system from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR). More than 40 patients have been treated using the new system for fast, precise radiotherapy and radiosurgery since clinical treatments began at Inselspital, the university hospital of Bern, the capital of Switzerland.
“Treatments with TrueBeam are very quick and delivered with great precision,” says Professor Daniel Aebersold, director of radiation oncology at Inselspital, “and studies have shown that increased dose delivery rates can potentially lead to higher cure rates, although this will need to be further validated through longer-term clinical trials.”
“TrueBeam enables us to deliver precise image-guided treatments quickly, which means a greater number of cancer patients can benefit from these advanced radiotherapy treatments,” adds Professor Aebersold. “At first we are using TrueBeam mainly for patients with large tumors, such as you often find with cervical cancer, anal cancer and advanced head and neck cancer.” Inselspital has become the fifth hospital in Europe to commence clinical treatments using TrueBeam.
Designed to advance the treatment of lung, breast, prostate, head and neck, and other types of cancer, the TrueBeam platform for image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery has been introduced by Varian Medical Systems as the first fully-integrated radiotherapy system designed from the ground up to treat a moving target with speed and precision. Since its introduction less than a year ago, more than 170 orders have been placed for TrueBeam systems globally and about 40 installations are completed or in progress.
Inselspital is a public hospital with a radiation oncology department serving almost a million people in central Switzerland. Over 2,000 new patients are treated each year in the main hospital and several satellite radiotherapy departments co-ordinated by Inselspital. The hospital is equipped with a full suite of Varian oncology information and treatment planning software and three standard Varian linear accelerators, including a Novalis™ Tx. Inselspital is an international reference center for the Varian/Brainlab Novalis Tx system.
Michael Sandhu, head of Varian’s Oncology Systems business in Europe, said, “Inselspital has long been at the forefront of advanced radiotherapy treatments and we are pleased that this leading hospital has adopted the TrueBeam system, Varian’s most advanced radiotherapy treatment solution for offering a broad range of options for personalized cancer treatment.”
Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786 526068
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 5,400 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com.