SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - October 20, 2003 - Varian Medical Systems, Inc.(NYSE:VAR) has introduced the world's first image-guided radiation therapy system optimized for both conventional and stereotactic approaches to treating cancer. The versatile Trilogy™ system, which is pending 510(k) clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), can be used to deliver 3D conformal radiotherapy, IMRT, stereotactic radiosurgery, fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy, and intensity-modulated radiosurgery for cancer and neurosurgical treatment.
"Trilogy is the first practical, clinically-viable system for delivering all forms of external-beam radiation therapy," said Timothy E. Guertin, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "It will enable doctors to choose and use the most appropriate treatment modality for treating cancer in the body or the head and neck, and to deliver the full spectrum of treatments, all on one machine in a single room."
Trilogy represents a cost-effective means of expanding the patient case mix and treatment modality repertoire within a radiation oncology department. At the core of the Trilogy system is Varian's 23EX Clinac® linear accelerator, which has been enhanced for stereotactic applications that involve delivering higher doses of radiation to smaller areas over a shorter period of time.
"We made the Trilogy system capable of delivering stereotactic radiosurgery by increasing its maximum dose delivery rate from 600 to 1000 monitor units (MU) per minute and by fine tuning the Clinac isocenter, or focal point, to a 1 millimeter diameter sphere," said Richard Stark, director of Varian's Delivery Systems product group. "Additionally, we made the treatment couch moveable by remote control, which is necessary for speeding up treatment for the patient and maximizing the number of beam angles that can be used to optimize treatment."
With Trilogy, doctors have the option to treat some small lesions using stereotactic radiosurgery, which is delivered in a single treatment, or stereotactic radiotherapy, which is delivered over a period of a few days. The Trilogy system can also be used for conventional and conformal radiation therapy, which are delivered in daily small doses over a period of weeks.
"The benefit of stereotactic approaches are generally realized with smaller lesions. As better diagnostic tools result in earlier detection, when the tumor is still quite small, stereotactic treatments are likely to play a larger role in radiation oncology," said Scott Johnson, PhD, Trilogy product manager.
The Trilogy system incorporates Varian's Dynamic Targeting™ Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) accessories for improved treatment precision, whether using conventional, conformal, or stereotactic approaches to radiation therapy. These currently include Varian's new PortalVision™ aS1000, an electronic portal imaging device that produces high-resolution images for patient positioning, treatment verification, and quality assurance. "In the future, we envision equipping Trilogy with imaging technology that will give doctors radiographic (two-dimensional), fluoroscopic (time-lapse) and cone-beam CT (three-dimensional) images for even more precise patient positioning and tumor localization. With the full spectrum of treatment delivery capabilities, guided by Dynamic Targeting IGRT, the Trilogy system will be able to handle any cancer case that is treatable with radiation therapy," said Guertin.
The Trilogy system is on display at the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) meeting here this week, through October 22.