Varian Unveils TrueBeam Radiotherapy Accelerator

Varian Medical Systems out of Palo Alto, California has released its TrueBeam image guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery system. With its new product, the firm promises faster treatments and high precision in targeting tumors, as well as continuous monitoring and adjustment of the accelerator’s beam in line with the patient’s natural organ movements. University Hospital of Zürich has received one of two pre-release models of the TrueBeam and has already successfully treated patients with a variety of different cancers.

Designed to be a versatile platform, a TrueBeam system can be used for all forms of advanced external-beam radiotherapy including image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery (IGRT and IGRS), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and RapidArc® radiotherapy. The product line includes TrueBeam STx, specially configured for advanced radiosurgery.
A TrueBeam system can deliver treatments up to 50 percent faster with a dose delivery rate of up to 2400 monitor units per minute, double the maximum output of earlier, industry-leading Varian systems.
"Intelligent" automation further speeds treatments with an up to five-fold reduction in the number of steps needed for imaging, positioning and treating patients. A standard intensity-modulated treatment that would typically take ten minutes can be completed in less than two minutes. Complex radiosurgery that typically takes 40 minutes to an hour, can be completed in just 5 to 20 minutes.
The precision of a TrueBeam system is measured in increments of less than a millimeter. This accuracy is made possible by the system’s sophisticated architecture, which establishes a new level of synchronization between imaging, patient positioning, motion management, beam shaping, and dose delivery technologies, performing accuracy checks every ten milliseconds throughout an entire treatment. Over 100,000 data points are monitored continually as a treatment progresses, ensuring that the system maintains a "true isocenter," or focal point of treatment.

The TrueBeam system also delivers Varian’s new ‘gated’ RapidArc radiotherapy, which compensates for tumor motion by synchronizing imaging with dose delivery during a continuous rotation around the patient.
Other innovations built in to the TrueBeam system include:

A streamlined treatment console with a modern, graphical, easy-to-use interface that consolidates all controls for imaging, treatment, and motion management. Treatment processes and workflows are simplified and easy to learn, with prompts, messages, and a “follow the light” guidance system that enhances safety by guiding therapists through the steps of even the most complex treatments. “One button” IGRT enables the therapist to spend more time attending to the patient, and less time managing the technology.

A newly-designed X-ray tube is optimized for generating high volumes of quality 3-D (cone-beam CT) images.

These 3-D images can be generated in 60% less time, with a 25% reduction in X-ray dose to the patient.

A treatment couch that can be positioned with sub-millimeter accuracy in relation to imaging and beam delivery processes.

A unique new non-clinical Developer Mode designed to facilitate collaboration with Oncology thought leaders interested in pioneering new treatment and imaging techniques.