May 19, 2008 - Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm is slated to be the first in Sweden to offer cancer patients advanced RapidArc treatments, placing orders for three RapidArc systems along with four replacement Clinac linear accelerators, to consolidate the city's radiotherapy software and hardware into an integrated network for greater efficiency.
RapidArc radiotherapy technology is designed to deliver image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) reportedly two to eight times faster and more precisely than conventional IMRT or helical tomotherapy.
RapidArc's volumetric modulated arc therapy delivers a complete IMRT treatment in a single rotation of the treatment machine around the patient. The two FDA clearances for RapidArc cover the treatment hardware and the RapidArc treatment planning software module in Varian's Eclipse treatment planning system. Varian will begin taking orders for RapidArc immediately and will begin delivering it to customers in the spring of 2008.
Clinicians can use RapidArc for prostate and head and neck treatments and still offer fixed beam IMRT treatments with motion management for lung and breast tumors and electron treatments for patients with lymphomas and skin cancers.
Hundreds of cancer patients are treated daily on 12 linear accelerators at the three sites that comprise Karolinska University Hospital. Varian's ARIA oncology information system and Eclipse treatment planning software have been installed across the network over the past year to unify activities at the main Karolinska, South and Danderyd Hospitals.
For more information: www.varian.com
July 09, 2024 
