CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Varian Medical Systems is introducing a new brachytherapy applicator set which is hoped to increase treatment precision and aid comfort for patients suffering from bronchial cancer. The Centering Intraluminal Applicator set is being made available for use with Varian's GammaMed™ and VariSource™ brachytherapy afterloaders.

The Centering Intraluminal Applicator set has been designed for treatment of the trachea, main bronchus and esophagus. The special design of the 3-centering catheter enables a centered position of the source in the lumen of the trachea or the bronchus while maintaining a channel for air to pass and for the patient to breathe. The three centering baskets can be partly or totally extended enabling an individual adaptation to the patient's anatomy.

"This new applicator set helps clinicians to optimize the dose distribution thanks to its ability to center the source at the middle of the bronchial lumen," says Claudia Andres-Zindler, brachytherapy applicator product manager. "Crucially, it also allows the patient to breathe unaided during treatment."
The Centering Intraluminal Applicator set uses a Seldinger guide wire technique to allow for easy implant guidance and a radiopaque x-ray marker line over the full length of the centering catheter and through the centering baskets allows an easy identification using either fluoroscopic or x-ray images.

High dose rate brachytherapy involves placing the radioactive source inside or next to the area requiring treatment. Varian Medical Systems, the world leader in radiotherapy, supplies a wide range of brachytherapy afterloaders and applicator sets to hospitals and cancer clinics throughout the world. More information on the Centering Intraluminal Applicator set can be obtained from www.varian.com

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,100 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 60 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.

SOURCE: Varian Medical Systems, Inc.

Web site: http://www.varian.com/

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