BEIJING /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cancer patients in mainland China are gaining access to fast and efficient radiotherapy treatments with the introduction of RapidArc® radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) at the Beijing Cancer Hospital. BCH is the first hospital in mainland China to introduce the revolutionary technique, which offers more advanced care to a greater number of patients.

"The speed and precision of RapidArc makes it perfect for the heavy patient throughput that we see in China," says Dr. Guangying Zhu, professor of radiation oncology at BCH. "We will be able to treat more patients with the new RapidArc-equipped accelerator, which should certainly help to improve the regional control rate and offer significant benefits to patients."

The new system was unveiled at a 'ribbon-cutting' ceremony attended by many local dignitaries on July 10th. Doctors at the hospital intend to use RapidArc primarily for precise treatments of lung cancer, esophagus cancer, rectal cancer and head & neck cancer.
RapidArc delivers a precise and efficient treatment in single or multiple arcs of the treatment machine around the patient and makes it possible to deliver image-guided IMRT two to eight times faster than is possible with conventional IMRT. Faster treatments allow for greater precision, since there is less chance of patient or tumor movement during treatment delivery and, with less time on the treatment couch, also allow for greater patient comfort.

Beijing Cancer Hospital has treated more than 5,000 patients with conventional IMRT in recent years, gaining a global reputation for the quality of its treatments and the scientific papers published on its research. "Most IMRT treatments take between 15 and 30 minutes to deliver," adds Dr. Zhu. "With RapidArc we will be able to offer equivalent and even superior treatments in just two to three minutes. The high-performance On-Board Imager® is an excellent targeting tool and the reliability of Varian's linear accelerators brings us a great deal of confidence for a high up-time system."

Beijing Cancer Hospital's department of radiation oncology treats more than 2,000 new cancer patients each year from across China, as well as from neighboring countries such as Vietnam.

According to Dr. Zhu, RapidArc will be particularly helpful in helping to cut growing waiting lists at the hospital, with cancer rates rising significantly year-on-year. "There is a huge difference in the linear accelerator installed base between different areas of China. From a technology and expertise standpoint, large hospitals in China have advanced equipment and clinical expertise that is no different from that in more developed countries. We just have nowhere near enough capacity to meet our needs," he says. There are 12 machines per million people in the US and only 0.7 machines per million people in China.

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