Clinicians use Varian RapidArc to treat early stage lung cancer
Doctors at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam have used RapidArc technology from Varian Medical Systems to treat four early stage lung cancer patients and now plan to replace conventional stereotactic radiotherapy treatments with RapidArc for all such patients.
A 57-year-old male, diagnosed with a 1.2-cm diameter non-small cell lung tumor in the right upper lobe and deemed unfit for surgery as a result of severe emphysema, was the first patient to receive the pioneering radiotherapy treatment at the hospital in early September, Varian said.
Treatment was delivered in less than 15 minutes versus the 30 to 45 minutes normally needed by the team at the university’s medical center to treat lungs with image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The treatment was delivered using six arcs of the treatment machine around the patient, while RapidArc delivers a volumetric radiotherapy treatment in a single or multiple arcs of the treatment, according to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.
A 57-year-old male, diagnosed with a 1.2-cm diameter non-small cell lung tumor in the right upper lobe and deemed unfit for surgery as a result of severe emphysema, was the first patient to receive the pioneering radiotherapy treatment at the hospital in early September, Varian said.
Treatment was delivered in less than 15 minutes versus the 30 to 45 minutes normally needed by the team at the university’s medical center to treat lungs with image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The treatment was delivered using six arcs of the treatment machine around the patient, while RapidArc delivers a volumetric radiotherapy treatment in a single or multiple arcs of the treatment, according to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.