New York, NY -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE:VAR) today is announcing the introduction of a new line of "super" accelerators designed to advance the treatment of lung, breast, prostate, head and neck, and other types of cancer. The TrueBeam™ platform for image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery is the first fully-integrated system designed from the ground up to treat a moving target with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Varian unveiled the new line last night at a special event conducted here for members of the cancer treatment community.

"We took everything clinicians told us they wanted to enable next-generation treatments, and we challenged ourselves to engineer a completely new treatment platform," said Tim Guertin, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "TrueBeam is the culmination of those efforts."

A TrueBeam system uses a completely re-engineered control system and a multitude of technical innovations to dynamically synchronize imaging, patient positioning, motion management, and treatment delivery. "It opens the door to the development of new and improved approaches for treating cancer and other medical conditions commonly treated with image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery," Guertin said. "We've also given TrueBeam a patient-friendly look with a beautiful sleek design, but it's what's under the covers that makes this system so special. It's intuitive, intelligent, and we think it is a game changer."
Designed to be a versatile platform, a TrueBeam system can be used for all forms of advanced external-beam radiotherapy including image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery (IGRT and IGRS), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and RapidArc® radiotherapy. The product line includes TrueBeam STx, specially configured for advanced radiosurgery.
Faster, More Precise Systems

A TrueBeam system can deliver treatments up to 50 percent faster with a dose delivery rate of up to 2400 monitor units per minute, double the maximum output of earlier, industry-leading Varian systems. This makes it possible to offer greater patient comfort by shortening treatments, and to improve precision by leaving less time for tumor motion during dose delivery.

"Intelligent" automation further speeds treatments with an up to five-fold reduction in the number of steps needed for imaging, positioning and treating patients. A standard intensity-modulated treatment that would typically take ten minutes can be completed in less than two minutes. Complex radiosurgery that typically takes 40 minutes to an hour, can be completed in just 5 to 20 minutes. "When we introduced RapidArc® radiotherapy, we were thrilled to see treatments done in about 2 minutes," said Guertin. "With TrueBeam, RapidArc treatments can now be completed in about a minute."

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