Varian Medical Systems -- On June 8, 2016 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, a cyclotron by Varian Medial Systems was installed in the country’s first proton therapy clinical center the construction of which is being completed by the International Institute of Biological Systems named after S.M. Berezin (IIBS).

The complete installation and the equipment start-up will take not less than a year. “We are planning to start treating patients in September 2017.” – chairman of the board of IIBS Arkadiy Stolpner says. By his estimates the proton therapy ProBeam cyclotron by Varian Medical Systems with 250 MeV of power will give the possibility to treat 800 patients per year. “But it is just a drop in the sea. In order to satisfy the real demand in proton therapy in Russia it is necessary to build 30 more centers like ours.” – Arkadiy Stolpner says.

There are no clinical centers in Russia performing mass treatment of patients by the proton beam. The existing Russian proton therapy centers are based on physical research institutes and have a very low capacity. The number of patients in the Russian Federation receiving proton therapy treatment amounts to dozens of people per year.
In the Russian Federation approximately half a million new cases of cancer are diagnosed annually. By estimates of the World Health Organization 70% of oncological patients need to be treated by radiоtherapy methods. Therefore in Russia 350 thousand newly diagnosed cancer patients need radiotherapy treatment annually. Out of them 10 per cent (approximately 35 thousand people) have indications for proton therapy.

Development of this area is extremely important for the country and it is supported by the authorities. “The proton center has received the status of a strategic project of Saint-Petersburg. A year ago the government of Saint-Petersburg and the management of the International Institute of Biological Systems entered into a partnership agreement. The city will allocate an annual quota for treating patients from the budget. Primarily we will pay for treating children having oncological ailments.”- said Vice-Governor Olga Kazanskaya who attended the briefing on the occasion of the cyclotron installation. Olga Kazanskaya has expressed a hope that starting the next year all little patients of Saint-Petersburg in need of proton therapy will be able to get help. By today’s estimates approximately 50 children in Saint-Petersburg need such help annually.

Development of proton therapy in Russia is held back by high costs of building such centers and thus a high price of treatment unaffordable to many Russians. According to Arkadiy Stolpner due to development of the treatment procedure the price of the full course of proton therapy treatment in Saint-Petersburg will be relatively small. It will cost around 30 thousand US dollars with an average cost around the world of 100 thousand US dollars.

The construction of the first in Russia proton therapy center started in 2013. The volume of private investment amounted to 130 million US dollars. The pay-back period is 17 years.

For information:
The Diagnostics and Treatment Center of the International Institute of Biological Systems (DTC IIBS) named after S. Berezin was founded in 2003 in Saint-Petersburg. It includes the Radiosurgery, stereotaxic radiotherapy and general oncology center fitted with a Gamma-knife, Cyber-knife equipment, high precision Varian TrueBeam STx accelerators, as well as the largest in Russia diagnostics network incorporating almost 100 units in more than 65 cities in Russia, Ukraine and Armenia.

Varian Medical Systems is the world’s leader in production of medical equipment intended for treating oncological cases with the help of radiotherapy.

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