October 6, 2008 - Doctors in Syracuse, NY, have deployed RapidArc radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems.
A new weapon in the fight against cancer, RapidArc delivers a precise image-guided IMRT treatment in two minutes or less, which is two to eight times faster than was previously possible with conventional IMRT, said Varian.
A 70-year-old prostate cancer patient was the first person to begin a course of RapidArc treatments at Syracuse Radiation Oncology, an early adopter and the one of the first sites in upstate New York to offer this form of treatment. Each of his daily treatments is taking just under two minutes to deliver.
“Compared with a traditional IMRT approach, we’re finding that a RapidArc treatment is noticeably faster to deliver,” said Neil Mariados, M.D., radiation oncologist, Syracuse Radiation Oncology. “A shorter treatment time means that patients spend less time holding still, and we believe this has the potential to improve treatment accuracy as the targeted tumor is less likely to shift position during a shorter treatment. Because RapidArc provides the accuracy we demand in a patient's radiotherapy, but in a shorter time frame, we are able to provide exceptional care to each of them.”
For more information: www.varian.com
July 09, 2024 
