Radiosurgery Suite Developed for Noninvasive Surgical Procedures

New radiosurgery technology incorporates new real-time tumor tracking in end-to-end system for performing radiosurgery anywhere in the body where radiation is required.

Varian Medical Systems’ (Palo Alto, CA, USA) new Edge Radiosurgery Suite is a fully integrated dedicated system for performing advanced radiosurgery using new real-time tumor tracking technology and motion management capabilities.


“Our new Edge radiosurgery suite represents the first really disruptive technology in radiosurgery in close to two decades, combining state-of-the-art linear accelerator technology with real-time tracking and patient positioning,” said Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian’s oncology systems business. “We designed the Edge to facilitate fast, accurate delivery of stereotactic radiosurgery to treat any condition amenable to this type of treatment, including tumors of the lung, prostate, brain, spine, and other indications throughout the body.”

Radiosurgery utilization, used as a noninvasive alternative, has been growing increasingly for the treatment of cancer and other disorders, and predictions are that it will continue to grow as research accrues about the benefits to patients. Radiosurgery involves the use of sophisticated software and hardware to ablate tumors or other abnormalities with high doses of radiation while minimizing exposure of surrounding healthy tissue.

The Edge radiosurgery suite combines sophisticated tools in an end-to-end solution for planning and delivering radiosurgery treatments, including: (1) real-time motion management tools, including the Calypso system and an optical surface monitoring system for real-time tracking of tumor motion during treatment; (2) image guidance that encompasses two-, three-, and four-dimensional (4D); (3) high intensity mode for fast dose delivery rates up to an industry-leading 2,400 monitor units per minute; (4) a new PerfectPitch treatment couch, which will provide clinicians with more alternative for locating and treating disease sites by making it possible to adjust the patient’s position along six axes of motion instead of four that were in earlier generations of technology; (5) Varian’s real-time system design, which enables effective synchronization between imaging, patient positioning, beam shaping, motion management, and dose delivery technologies, performing accuracy checks every 10ms; (6) multiple beam-shaping options, including Varian’s high-definition multileaf collimator and radiosurgery conical collimators; (7) support for both frame-based and frameless approaches to patient immobilization; (8) lastly, Eclipse treatment planning software, plus automated contouring tools and an anatomical atlas of templates for expediting the radiosurgery treatment planning process.

Clinicians from the Champalimaud Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal) were among the clinical specialists evaluating the Edge radiosurgery suite during its development stages. “We have been researching the viability of using single-fraction and hypofractionated radiosurgery to treat primary and oligometastatic lesions using earlier TrueBeam technology,” said Dr. Carlo Greco, professor of radiation oncology. “It is clear to us that the Edge platform, with its integrated tumor tracking features, will greatly facilitate these advanced, targeted treatments. It overcomes many of the limitations of other technologies, and will make it possible for image-guided radiosurgery to be more widely available to patients who can benefit.”

“Varian’s Edge will offer clinicians a wide spectrum of capabilities in one smooth end-to-end workflow,” Ms. Kennedy said. “With submillimeter accuracy, accelerated treatment speeds, and real-time tracking, we feel the Edge is going to be the sharpest radiosurgery blade on the market.”

Various tools developed for the new Edge system will also be made available as upgrades to Varian’s current TrueBeam, Trilogy, and Clinac iX treatment platforms. The Edge radiosurgery suite is currently pending US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance and not available for sale.

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