BRISBANE AU, 11 September 2017 – On June 13, clinicians at Genesis CancerCare Queensland delivered the first of three high dose rate brachytherapy treatments to a woman with loco-regionally advanced stage (IIB) cervical cancer. The patient’s post-chemoradiation brachytherapy boost treatments marked the first clinical use of Elekta’s Venezia Advanced Gynecological Applicator in the Australia / Asia-Pacific region.

Venezia is designed to treat not only the cervix using an intracavitary technique, but also disease extensions in the parametrium and vagina employing interstitial needles. The applicator enables doctors to treat advanced stages of cervical cancer, such as IIIA and IIIB with vaginal and parametrial extensions.

“This first patient was fortunate not to have disease spread requiring the use of interstitial needles, but Venezia will give us the capacity to begin using this treatment approach for cases involving disease spread to the parametrium or even for vaginal cancer cases as well,” says Dr. Nicola Lowrey, Genesis CancerCare radiation oncologist.
“Our initial use of Venezia demonstrated how simple this applicator is to use,” says Dr. Andrea Garrett, GenesisCare Gynaecological Oncologist, the physician in charge of fixing Venezia in place in the patient. “Once we had a brief practice run outside the patient, the actual insertion in the patient went very smoothly.”

Both Drs. Lowrey and Garrett maintain that the “clickable” design of Venezia contributes in large part to making insertion in the patient simple.

“The ovoids of Venezia click together inside the patient, forming a ring,” Dr. Lowrey says. “The ring part of Venezia creates the desirable pear-shaped dose distribution that matches the shape of the cervix and endometrium.”

“Beyond ease of use and the versatility of Venezia for both intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy, the capability to create that optimal dose distribution with Venezia is really the most critical patient advantage,” adds Candice Deans, Genesis CancerCare Brachytherapy Services Manager. “We will definitely use Venezia as our stand-alone applicator for all of our cervical cancer cases that require brachytherapy.”

Genesis CancerCare is Australia's leading provider of radiotherapy treatments, performing 360,000 treatments across its national network each year. Genesis CancerCare is renowned for using the latest technology and most advanced techniques to deliver personalized treatments.

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