Oncology, business  

Varian's first Trilogy linear accelerator in Europe installed in Lisbon clinic

4 October 2005

Lisbon, Portugal. Varian Medical Systems has scored a European first with the installation of its Trilogy medical linear accelerator at the Clinica Quadrantes in Lisbon. The accelerator will enable doctors at the clinic to offer cancer patients more targeted treatments using new methods including intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

A fully-accessorized Varian Medical Systems Trilogy medical linear accelerator is one of the most versatile machine in the world with the capability of offering all standard radiation therapies as well as the most advanced treatments that make it possible to concentrate more dose on tumours while protecting surrounding healthy tissue. It is expected to help doctors to improve cure rates for patients while reducing treatment complications.

Dr. Luis Lebre, clinical director at Clinica Quadrantes, says, "We acquired the Trilogy accelerator because we always strive to set standards in radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments in Portugal. This means cancer patients in this country will finally be able to receive these more targeted treatments and shows just how far radiotherapy capabilities have developed in Portugal in the last five years."

He said the acquisition of the Trilogy accelerator came as a result of a close collaboration between the clinic's radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons and medical physicists. The new medical linear accelerator makes it possible to control malignant metastatic outbreaks anywhere in the body using stereotactic treatments that involve delivering higher doses of radiation to smaller areas with more precision in just one to five treatment sessions.

"Trilogy is the first practical, clinically-viable linear accelerator that is capable of delivering all forms of external-beam radiation therapy," said Walter Frei, head of Varian's Oncology Systems business in Europe. "It enables doctors to choose and use the most appropriate treatment modality for treating cancer in the body or the head and neck, and to deliver the full spectrum of treatments, all on one machine in a single room." Designed for more rapid and precise treatments than is possible with conventional accelerators, the Trilogy accelerator can be equipped with Varian's Dynamic Targeting(TM) IGRT accessories for improved treatment precision, including the On-Board Imager(TM), which gives doctors radiographic (two-dimensional), fluoroscopic (time-lapse), and Cone Beam CT (three-dimensional) images for seeing and targeting tumors more precisely.

The On-Board Imager is already installed on Varian Trilogy and Clinac(R) medical linear accelerators at more than 80 cancer treatment centers around the globe. Within Europe, Varian's IGRT tools based on the On-Board Imager are in clinical use and available at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Hirslanden Klinik in Aarau, Switzerland, the University Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark, Haukeland University in Bergen, Norway, the Clatterbridge Oncology Centre near Liverpool, UK, and others.

As well as the Trilogy accelerator, Clinica Quadrantes treats patients using a Varian Clinac 2100CD linear accelerator and an Acuity imaging system for treatment planning and simulation. Additional Clinac and Acuity devices were recently ordered for installation in the clinic's new satellite center at Faro, on the Algarve, which will enable patients from the south of Portugal to receive state-of-the-art cancer treatments without having to travel to Lisbon.

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