Top Malaysian Cancer Center Begins Treatments Using World's Most Versatile and Advanced Radiotherapy Machine

A leading cancer center in Malaysia has begun offering patients state-of-the-art radiotherapy treatments using a new Trilogy(R) linear accelerator from Varian Medical Systems. The NCI Cancer Hospital in Nilai, south of Kuala Lumpur, has launched treatment programs offering the latest in high-precision radiotherapy techniques, including intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery.

More than 40 patients have been treated on the versatile, all-in-one Trilogy machine since treatments started in the middle of April. Prior to acquiring the Trilogy system, the hospital only had a low-energy linear accelerator that limited the treatments they could offer.

"The new system is marvelous because it enables us to offer our patients treatments that could not have been done here before," said Dr. Govindaraju Selvaratnam, the hospital's medical director. "The additional accuracy of IMRT using the Trilogy has given us the confidence to boost doses to the tumor because we know we're reducing doses to adjacent critical structures. We can reach dose levels with the Trilogy that we simply couldn't before and our patients are benefiting as a result."

Dr. Selvaratnam added that as well as launching standard IMRT programs for prostrate, breast and head/neck cancer patients, the Trilogy accelerator enabled his team to handle more difficult and challenging cases, such as large-field treatments to target tumor recurrence in the chest wall and treating tumors in the esophagus and large sarcomas. "With Trilogy we can address huge treatment fields of a size that we never believed we would be able to achieve here at NCI," he added.

He said his radiographers routinely used the Trilogy's On-Board Imager(R) device to check and, if necessary, adjust the position of the patient at every treatment session. In August, the hospital will begin a stereotactic program involving powerful treatments in one-to-five sessions to control metastatic outbreaks. Shortly afterwards they plan to begin 3D imaging using the On-Board Imager's conebeam CT imaging mode as well as treatments using respiratory gating, whereby the treatment beam is automatically switched on and off in tandem with a patient's normal breathing cycle.

Dr. Selvaratnam and his team are currently treating approximately 22 patients a day on the Trilogy linear accelerator. The private NCI Cancer Hospital handles up to 800 new cancer patients each year, half of them from the nation's capital Kuala Lumpur.

Varian Medical Systems' Trilogy medical linear accelerator is the most versatile machine of its type in the world, with the capability of offering all standard radiation therapies as well advanced treatments that make it possible to concentrate greater doses on tumors while protecting surrounding healthy tissue. It is expected to help doctors to improve cure rates for patients while reducing treatment complications.

"Trilogy is the first practical, clinically-viable linear accelerator that is capable of delivering all forms of external-beam radiation therapy," said Dow Wilson, head of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "It enables doctors to choose and use the most appropriate treatment modality for treating cancer in the body or the head and neck, and to deliver the full spectrum of treatments, all on one machine in a single room."

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California is the world's leading manufacturer of medical technology for treating cancer with radiotherapy and neurological conditions with radiosurgery. The company is also a premier supplier of X-ray tubes and flat-panel digital subsystems for imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 3,600 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 56 sales and support offices around the world. In Europe, the company operates manufacturing and engineering centers in Baden (Switzerland), Crawley (England), Haan (Germany), Helsinki (Finland) and Toulouse (France) and has headquarters for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEA) based in Zug, Switzerland.

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