Overlake Medical Center Offers Cancer Patients Faster, More Precise Radiotherapy
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Bellevue, Wash. – Overlake Medical Center is now treating cancer patients faster and with greater precision using the new TrueBeam radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatment system from Varian Medical Systems. It is an innovative image-guided radiotherapy technology enabling a radically different approach to treating cancer.
William Reece, MD, treated the first patient using the hospital’s new system on July 2, 2013. This patient recently finished his course of treatment for lung cancer.
With dose delivery rates that are 40–140 percent higher than earlier generations of Varian technology, the TrueBeam system can complete a treatment commensurately faster. This makes it possible to offer greater patient comfort by shortening treatment times, and to improve precision. “Intelligent” automation further speeds treatments with an up to fivefold reduction in the number of steps needed for image guidance and dose delivery.
“TrueBeam makes it possible to deliver accurate image-guided treatments within a few minutes per day. Daily, we monitor and compensate for tumor motion, and that further increases treatment accuracy,” said Dr. Reece.
The TrueBeam imager can produce the three-dimensional images used to fine-tune tumor targeting in 60% less time compared with previous Varian image-guided technologies. Additional functionality makes it possible to create images using 25% less X-ray dose.
“Imaging is an essential part of modern-day, targeted radiotherapy,” explained James Pelton, MD, who also plays an instrumental role in patient care with TrueBeam. “This machine allows us to minimize the amount of x-ray needed to generate an image—and that’s good for our patients.”
TrueBeam can be used for many forms of advanced treatments such as image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), including intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), RapidArc® radiotherapy technology and Gated RapidArc. “Each of these approaches is appropriate for a certain type of clinical situation,” said Dr. Reece. “With TrueBeam, we can choose the optimal approach for our patients.”
