Odense, Denmark, -- Odense University Hospital (OUH, Odense) recently signed an order to acquire two Versa HD™ radiation therapy treatment systems. On March 1, Elekta announced the global launch of Versa HD, an advanced linear accelerator designed to improve patient care and treat a broader range of cancers, and featuring ultra-conformal beam shaping and tumor targeting. Versa HD promises the versatility to enable clinicians to deliver conventional therapies to a wide range of tumors throughout the body, while also permitting treatment of very complex cancers that require extreme targeting accuracy. Versa HD also unveils new capabilities designed to maximize health care system resources and deliver highly sophisticated therapies without compromising treatment times.

"In the process of replacing two existing linear accelerators, we began evaluating the systems of different vendors. Our focus was to acquire high-end linear accelerators with fast and efficient dose delivery mainly for stereotactic treatments, but also head-and-neck and lung cases," says Knud Aage Werenberg, head physicist at OUH. "We found that Elekta's Versa HD - with its highly conformal beam shaping technology and High Dose Rate mode - would fulfill these requirements."

The high doses employed in the treatment of typically very small targets in stereotactic radiation therapy demand a system that combines high precision with rapid beam delivery, he adds. "Versa HD is equipped with Elekta's Agility™ MLC, which has 160 high-speed leaves for conforming closely to tumor margins and a flattening filter-free beam generation for High Dose Rate mode," Werenberg says. "Stereotactic treatments, especially, will benefit from the system's high dose rate capabilities, which will reduce beam delivery time. Reduced beam-on time will result in less intrafractional organ movement, meaning more dose to the target and less to surrounding tissues - in addition to a much shorter treatment time. For example, a stereotactic case that used to take 12 minutes might now take just five minutes with Versa HD. This will also benefit the department by increasing the number of patients we can treat per day."
Advanced technology for common and complex cases Versa HD incorporates technologies designed to provide an immediate impact to patient health and quality of life. Integrated with Elekta's revolutionary Agility MLC, Versa HD provides highly conformal beam shaping - a critical requirement for maximizing the dose to the target while also preserving surrounding healthy tissues. Significantly, this high targeting accuracy is available over a large field-of-view, permitting delivery of high-definition (HD) beams to a broad spectrum of complex targets.

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