April 21, 2010 - A new platform for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and radiosurgery designed to treat a moving tumor with greater speed and precision, is now in use at the University Hospital of Zürich.
One of two of the world's premier cancer centers to install a TrueBeam system from Varian Medical Systems, University of Zürich began using the system clinically in March to treat prostate, lung cancer as well as schwannomas (benign nerve sheath tumors), brain, and spinal metastases.
Two patients with vestibular schwannomas were the first to receive RapidArc stereotactic radiosurgery treatments on the hospital's new TrueBeam system. At the highest dose delivery rate available on the system, these treatments took just over 1.6 minutes to deliver-treatments that would require 6-8 minutes at conventional dose delivery rates.
According to Professor Urs M. Lütolf, M.D., clinical director and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Zürich University Hospital, this represents a quarter of the time we needed for this type of treatment before," said Dr. Lütolf.
In addition, there are plans to extend treatments for lung and upper GI tract cancers such as pancreas and gall bladder, along with palliative treatments.
For more information: www.varian.com
August 09, 2024 
