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With the Danish government ruling that the period from diagnosis totreatment should not exceed four weeks, Denmark is currently making a largeinvestment in its radiotherapy infrastructure. If the four week deadline isnot met by hospitals, patients are free to seek treatment outside the country.
Three Clinac(R) linear accelerators will be supplied to Aalborg UniversityHospital in the northern region of Denmark, while Aarhus University Hospital,in Jutland, has ordered two Clinac iX machines with On-Board Imager(R) devicesfor advanced image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) just a few months after orderingDenmark's first Trilogy(R) all-in-one linear accelerator. The orders for thefive Clinac accelerators were placed in June.
At Aalborg University Hospital, two of the new machines will replace agingequipment and the third will add new capacity, leaving the center with fivetreatment machines in total. "We see great advantage in having five identicaland fully compatible linear accelerators in our department," says Dr. JesperCarl, chief physicist at Aalborg University Hospital. "We know that Varianmachines are very stable and they are well integrated with our planning andinformation management systems." He said the new equipment would enable thehospital to expand its robust IGRT and IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy)programs.
Lars Praestegaard, technical manager in Aarhus University Hospital'sdepartment of medical physics, said the new accelerators would also enableclinicians to expand their IGRT program, which helps to improve the precisionof treatments by tracking and adjusting for tumor motion. Their IGRT programis currently active for a number of cancer treatments, primarily for prostateand head/neck tumors.
"We utilize the On-Board Imager system for online guidance using implantedgold seeds for all treatments of prostate cancer," he said. "We also usecone-beam CT to verify tumor shrinkage for adaptive radiotherapy for head/neckpatients, as well as CBCT-guided cranial stereotactic radiotherapy."
The Trilogy accelerator, due to be installed in September, will be usedequally for research and clinical treatments such as cranial stereotacticradiotherapy (SRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and image-guidedadaptive radiotherapy (IGART).
"We are delighted that these two university hospitals have selected Varianequipment for treating cancer patients in their respective regions," says StenHornsleth, Varian's Scandinavian regional manager. "Coupled with Varian'sselection for significant projects in Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet and Herlev)and Hospital South (Naestved) earlier this year, these decisions reiterate theDanish oncology community's belief in Varian machines as the optimum way todeliver precise, fast and advanced radiotherapy treatments."
About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world'sleading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer andother medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, andbrachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managingcomprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncologypractices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors forX-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and alsosupplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection.Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 4,400 people who are located atmanufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 60 sales andsupport offices a
