Two studies presented at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) joint meeting show benefits from Varian Medical Systems' RapidArc radiotherapy technology, the company said.
Researchers from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City have concluded that RapidArc spared healthy tissues and organs better than conventional approaches to radiation therapy when treating lung cancer.
The comparison study of different treatment plans found that the average dose to healthy lung tissues was 8 Gy lower for the RapidArc plan compared to two other treatment approaches. The amount of healthy tissue receiving 10% to 20% of the prescribed dose was 45% to 50% lower for the RapidArc plan.
In addition, clinicians from St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, PA, described an approach to RapidArc treatment planning that enabled them to achieve greater dose distributions for treating spine tumors with stereotactic radiosurgery, according to Varian.
Their poster presentation covered the dosimetry characteristics of 11 RapidArc treatment plans for spinal tumors and concluded that the RapidArc plans "allow for extremely rapid dose fall off," which means that outside the target area, dose levels decrease quickly to help protect surrounding healthy tissues.
