Collaboration to Provide Volumetric-Modulated Arc Therapy at Swiss Cancer Hospital

An 83-year-old Swiss patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has become the first patient worldwide to be treated using a combination of volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) and radiotherapy treatment planning system software and equipment.

VMAT treatments enable the delivery of precise image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) faster than traditional IMRT. With volumetric arc treatments, the beam rapidly delivers the dose while continuously rotating around the patient. Recent findings revealed that faster treatments allow for greater precision, since there is less likelihood of patient or tumor movement during treatment delivery.

Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA, USA), a developer of VMAT and radiotherapy treatment planning systems, has effectively incorporated its Eclipse treatment planning system with Elekta (Stockholm, Sweden) linear accelerators to provide VMAT treatments at Kantonsspital St. Gallen (St. Gallen, Switzerland).

“We have been using Eclipse to plan other types of radiotherapy treatments for many years and have very good experience delivering those treatments on our Elekta treatment machines,” stated Dr. Ludwig Plasswilm, the hospital’s chief of radiation oncology. “We wanted to introduce faster volumetric modulated arc treatments in order to serve more patients more effectively. Physicists at our department worked on the development of this new approach with Varian, which has demonstrated its commitment to open architecture for clinical systems, and we have now seen successful integration of Eclipse with our treatment machines. We have now initiated more advanced volumetric treatments and our experience so far is that the integration is very good with a natural workflow. We haven't experienced any problems and are delighted to be the first in the world to integrate these systems for the benefit of our patients.”

Kantonsspital St. Gallen, a public hospital that treats 1,200 cancer patients from the northeast of Switzerland yearly, is equipped with two Elekta Synergy linear accelerators and Varian’s Aria information management and Eclipse treatment planning software. Moreover, the department operates a tomotherapy machine.

“Varian remains committed to open hardware and software architecture in radiation oncology,” said Rolf Staehelin, Varian’s senior director of international marketing. “Our work at St. Gallen is a typical example of Varian’s commitment to giving clinicians the tools they need to deliver advanced treatments for their patients.”

Related Links:
Varian Medical Systems
Elekta
Kantonsspital St. Gallen