Clinics will have to simultaneously address the challenges of increased treatment complexity, declining reimbursement, and the need to find, train, and retrain staff. To meet these needs, Varian is developing proton therapy systems that offer a completely integrated clinical process, optimized workflow to reduce treatment times, automated tools for advanced treatment delivery and an integrated, intuitive user interface to minimize learning curves and optimize utility. Eclipse and ARIA are strong products in their own right, having been continually optimized for managing all types of cancer care. They are also already installed and operating alongside technology from a variety of different vendors at several proton therapy facilities around the world, including M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

DM: Give us a snapshot of your current investments related to proton therapy.


LB: Varian is making ongoing investments in the effort to produce a leading edge proton therapy system. As the proton vendor with the most experience developing and producing technology for cancer treatment, we are following our well established roadmap and processes for product development and introduction.

DM: What is the latest with Accel? It was acquired by your company fairly recently, then sold in part in 2009.

LB: Varian Medical Systems sold only the Research Instruments part of Accel;
this is something we had planned from the time of the acquisition in January 2007. Our primary interest was in the proton therapy portion of Accel, which we retain. (The Research Instruments part is a provider of research components and instruments primarily to national research labs.)

The cyclotron installed by Accel at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland has been operating clinically for about two years. We're encouraged by the data on availability showing that the cyclotron has been running in excess of 98 percent uptime.

DM: What's on the horizon?

There are more articles being published and broadcast both in the clinical community and the mass media, which raise awareness of the advantages and the challenges of proton therapy. Generally speaking, the interest level in proton therapy is as high as ever. It's evident that clinical efficiency and integration are becoming even more important.

Read our exclusive update on proton therapy in the May 2009 issue of DOTmed Business News, now online in a page-turning format.



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