Varian Medical Systems Introduces Fast and Precise Brachytherapy Planning System at GEC-ESTRO in Portugal

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A significantly more accurate* way of calculating the dosimetry of cancer treatments will be introduced by Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) at the GEC-ESTRO exhibition in Porto, Portgual, on May 14-16. BrachyVision™ Acuros™ enables clinicians to rapidly calculate patient doses for brachytherapy treatments (a form of radiotherapy) with an extremely high level of accuracy.

"This is a quantum leap forward in terms of accuracy with timeframes that were previously thought unimaginable," says Sophie Wetherall, Varian BrachyTherapy software product manager. "BrachyVision Acuros offers an improvement in dose calculation that will help clinicians make better decisions about dose to their patients and further their knowledge to make treatments more accurate."

Dose levels for brachytherapy have generally been calculated as if the sources are surrounded by water, whereas in reality a patient's anatomy contains many different materials such as bone, lung, tissue and air, as well as additional materials that are often present from inserted applicators. In the past the only way to account for this was using Monte Carlo calculation techniques, something that was only available as a research tool. Now, for the first time in routine clinical brachytherapy, BrachyVision Acuros is able to account for the dose effects from these variations.

source: Varian Medical Systems