Scottish Executive Awards Varian Medical Systems Major Contract to Supply Advanced Radiotherapy Equipment to Scotland's Five Cancer Centers

EDINBURGH, Scotland, July 27th 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) has been awarded a contract to supply eight TrueBeam treatment systems to hospitals in Scotland as part of a major nationwide procurement program. The award also involves two Clinac® iX linear accelerators, ancillary equipment and software from Varian, the world leader in radiotherapy.

The new equipment will replace ageing treatment machines at radiotherapy departments in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. "This is a major replacement program aimed at refreshing our stock of radiotherapy treatment machines across Scotland," says NHS National Services Scotland's Procurement Manager (Equipping and Technical) and project lead John Slater. "We considered several approaches but were persuaded by the leading technology that Varian offers."

Funded by the Scottish Executive, the project - also including third party products and construction services - represents a national approach to procurement. "We looked at the needs of all five centers and wrapped them into a turnkey, consolidated project for greater efficiency," says John Slater.    

Gary Currie, medical physicist at West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow, adds, "These new machines represent the latest in linear accelerator technology and they will enable Scotland's radiotherapy departments to introduce cutting-edge treatments for the benefit of the country's cancer patients. There are currently twenty-five treatment machines in Scotland and this project involves replacing ten of them with advanced new systems."

He said clinicians in Scotland aim to offer advanced image-guided RapidArc® intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments to 30% of patients within 12-18 months. IMRT enables dose to be delivered more precisely to the tumor than systems without IMRT and reduces dose to healthy tissue. RapidArc enables IMRT to be delivered in less than two minutes rather than the 15-20 minutes needed for conventional IMRT treatments.  

Varian's TrueBeam was introduced to treat tumors in a fast and precise manner, including tumors that move during treatment as the patient breathes in and out. Designed to advance the treatment of lung, breast, prostate, head and neck, and other types of cancer, TrueBeam features a multitude of technical innovations that dynamically synchronize imaging, patient positioning, motion management, and treatment delivery. With its High Intensity Mode, TrueBeam can deliver very high doses quickly and accurately, more than twice as fast as earlier generations of technology.

"This is an ambitious nationwide project and we are delighted that Scottish hospitals have recognized the benefits of investing in new technologies such as TrueBeam to deliver the latest techniques such as SBRT and radiosurgery in an efficient and cost effective way, benefitting patients across Scotland," said David Scott, Varian's UK sales director.

"TrueBeam will bring new hope to many patients in Scotland by enabling centers to introduce Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT), a technique that can accurately target tumours that in many cases are inoperable. TrueBeam is able to deliver SBRT treatments in minutes as opposed to hours, without compromise to clinical flexibility, making it potentially more cost effective than dedicated robotic SBRT-only systems."

Replacement program

The West of Scotland Cancer Centre currently treats patients using 11 Varian treatment machines, making it one of the largest radiotherapy centres in Europe.  "As a result of this investment, we'll have five machines here in Glasgow capable of delivering RapidArc treatments," says Gary Currie, "and our colleagues in Dundee and Aberdeen will be able to introduce RapidArc for the first time." The first TrueBeam system to be installed as part of this project is bound for Inverness.

The five hospitals receiving the new equipment and software from Varian are: West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow; Western General Hospital in Edinburgh; Ninewells Hospital in Dundee; Aberdeen Royal Infirmary; and Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

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 and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,700 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.

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems, Inc.