Hospitals in London and Dorset have acquired the final two of ten advanced Varian Medical Systems radiotherapy treatment machines offered as part of an innovative government program to roll out the most modern cancer treatments for patients in the UK’s public hospitals.
North Middlesex University Hospital and Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have ordered TrueBeam™ medical linear accelerators via an NHS Supply Chain initiative aimed at stimulating replacements of older treatment machines with state-of-the-art systems.
For North Middlesex University Hospital, the TrueBeam ordered earlier this year replaces an older radiotherapy machine and will enable the hospital to introduce advanced radiotherapy techniques such as image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the first time, along with fast and precise RapidArc® technology.
“We see a lot of lung cancer and prostate cancer patients at this hospital and these patients will benefit greatly from these more advanced and precise technologies,” says Sian Davies, consultant clinical oncologist. “We have a large workload here and RapidArc on TrueBeam will be particularly helpful in enabling us to achieve a greater throughput.”
“RapidArc is used clinically all over the world and it has become a tried and tested method for delivering fast and precise volumetric treatments,” adds head of radiotherapy Joanne McCaffrey. “We believe it will be a real asset to our oncology department.”
Designed to treat a moving target with unprecedented speed and accuracy, Varian’s TrueBeam system incorporates numerous technical innovations that dynamically synchronise imaging, patient positioning, motion management, and treatment delivery during a radiotherapy or radiosurgery procedure. The advanced RapidArc system delivers precise image-guided IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy) up to four times faster than conventional IMRT.
As well as ordering the TrueBeam system in March, Poole Hospital has also upgraded its two existing Varian linear accelerators with On-Board Imager® and RapidArc technology, enabling fast and efficient image-guided IMRT treatments for their patients.
David Scott, Varian’s UK sales director, says, “The ten Varian machines offered through the NHS Supply Chain commitment deal have been ordered swiftly by hospitals. This shows that Varian will continue as the premier supplier to National Health Service hospitals, developing technologies that offer patients advanced radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments that can be delivered quickly and efficiently.”
Other TrueBeam systems in the NHS Supply Chain initiative have been ordered over the past year by hospitals in Guildford (x2), Newcastle (x2), Hereford, Hull, Liverpool, and Sheffield.
