AHMEDABAD, India, June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- HCG Cancer Centre, the first hospital in India to introduce clinical treatments using an advanced TrueBeam™ treatment system from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), has conducted a workshop focusing on stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for treating cancers of the lung, liver, spine, and prostate.  More than 150 specialists from across India attended the medical meeting in Ahmedabad.

"This meeting enabled our fellow oncologists to learn more about advanced radiotherapy treatments while sharing their own experiences," said Dr. B.S.Ajaikumar, chairman of the HCG group. "SBRT is helping hospitals such as ours to offer more advanced treatments for hard-to-treat diseases such as lung and liver cancer while bringing down the time the patient needs to spend being treated. Such techniques are making a real difference for cancer patients globally and we want to see greater accessibility for patients across India."     

"The experience of stereotactic radiosurgery for treatments in the skull has led to the development of new techniques to extend this approach to sites elsewhere in the body – particularly in the lung - and this move towards SBRT has been aided by the superior imaging and dose delivery capabilities of the latest treatment systems," says Dr. Vivek Bansal, director of radiation oncology at HCG Cancer Centre. "TrueBeam is the most advanced of these systems and we are delighted to be the first center in India to offer treatments with this comprehensive device."  

Designed to treat cancer more precisely and faster than with Varian's previous technology, TrueBeam was installed at the HCG Cancer Centre earlier this year and clinicians have used it to deliver numerous treatments. Among the techniques for which TrueBeam is optimized is SBRT, which precisely targets tumors while minimizing the exposure of surrounding healthy tissues and organs.  This makes it possible to deliver higher doses in fewer treatment sessions, thereby making the machine available for more patients.

Evening Symposium

In addition to supporting the workshop at the HCG Cancer Centre, yesterday evening Varian also hosted a symposium at the Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi on emerging technologies and advanced clinical applications including RapidArc® Radiosurgery on the TrueBeam platform. RapidArc makes it possible to quickly perform radiotherapy and radiosurgery with unmatched efficiency by targeting tumors while moving the machine in a continuous arc around the patient. 

"It is vital that Varian as the industry leader educates practitioners in techniques that may make a huge difference to the patient's experience," says Rolf Staehelin, Varian's head of international marketing. "Events such as these are milestones on the path to making the most effective and efficient treatments available to the greatest number of patients. In particular, the Ahmedabad event saw three excellent debates on the use of SBRT rather than surgery for lung, primary liver and prostate cancer."  

Cancer in India

"With the largest installed base of linear accelerators in India, Varian continues to equip the country's cancer hospitals with technologies that make advanced radiotherapy techniques fast and easy to deliver," adds Ashok Kakkar, managing director of Varian India Pty. "We have also established a dedicated education center in Mumbai because helping to train the nation's radiotherapists and physicists in the safe and effective use of Varian's products is crucial for the future care of India's growing cancer population."

India has a population of over a billion people and there are an estimated one million new cases of cancer diagnosed in the country each year. The most common forms of cancer for females in India are cervical and breast, while lung and stomach are the leading cancers for males.

Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786 526068

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, 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, digital detectors, and image processing workstations for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing applications.  Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,000 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems, Inc.