Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., recently announced that the first cancer patient was treated using the company’s HyperArc High Definition Radiotherapy (HDRT), a new type of radiosurgery treatment, at Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Cancer Care Center in Negrar-Verona, Italy. With HyperArc, clinicians can deliver more compact radiation doses that closely conform to the size, shape, and location of tumors while sparing more surrounding healthy tissue.
“HyperArc HDRT allows us to deliver state-of-the-art radiosurgery to highly complex cases efficiently and with a very high degree of dose compactness and conformity,” says Filippo Alongi, MD, director of radiation oncology at Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Cancer Care Center and associate professor of radiation oncology at Brescia University. “The first patient we treated with HyperArc was a complex case of multiple intracranial metastases, and we were impressed with the quality and efficiency of the treatment. We now look forward to following the patient and further using HyperArc to manage the disease.”
“We are very excited about this first treatment using HyperArc as we usher in a new era of precision in radiotherapy and radiosurgery for cancer patients,” says Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian Oncology Systems business.
HyperArc is designed to capitalize on the unique capabilities of Varian’s TrueBeam and EDGE treatment platforms. HyperArc treatments exploit specific capabilities of the platforms to deliver more compact radiation doses that can fully saturate a targeted tumor and “fall off” sharply outside the target zone, minimizing and, where necessary, even eliminating dose to specific organs requiring more protection.
The treatment planning for HyperArc is supported by Varian’s Eclipse treatment planning software and is 510(k) pending. HyperArc treatment delivery has received CE mark and FDA 510(k) clearance and is not for sale in all markets.
