Cancer Treatment Imaging Device Wins Award

Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA, USA) has announced that its On-Board Imager (OBI) device for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and image-guided radiosurgery (IGRS) has received an R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine as one of the 100 most technologically significant products of the past year. The OBI device is designed to improve the precision and effectiveness of radiotherapy treatments for cancer by giving doctors the ability to image, target, and track tumors at the time of treatment.

"We're honored to have the OBI recognized for this prestigious award,” said Timothy Guertin, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "With OBI, clinicians can see and safely treat tumors with higher, more effective radiation doses while sparing more surrounding healthy tissue. The OBI device can be used to target tumors more precisely to help stop the spread of some early-stage metastatic cancers.”

The OBI device combines advanced x-ray imaging capabilities with advanced software for planning and delivering image-guide radiotherapy (IGRT) and image-guided radiosurgery (IGRS) utilizing medical linear accelerators. It combines a low-dose, kilovoltage x-ray tube with a flat panel digital image detector (both made by Varian) for real-time filmless imaging. It generates high-resolution radiographic, fluoroscopic, and three-dimensional (3D) cone-beam computed tomography (CT) images for finding tumors and tracking their movements.

"The combination of software and x-ray imaging technologies is revolutionizing radiotherapy and radiosurgery,” said Calvin Huntzinger, marketing and engineering manager for Varian's Surgical Sciences product line. "It represents the culmination of an extensive, multi-disciplinary team effort that involved research and development by Varian experts from many different sites across the globe. The team members all derived a great sense of personal satisfaction in solving the challenging technical problems to profoundly impact the quality of cancer treatment available to people.”



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