Varian Medical Systems Completes Commissioning of Five Proton Therapy Treatment Rooms Plus Deployment of ProBeam® System Upgrade at Scripps Proton Therapy Center

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ASTRO Booth #618 -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today announced that the company completed commissioning of five treatment rooms at the Scripps Proton Therapy Center earlier this year, and has upgraded the ProBeam^® system software.  The upgrade to ProBeam 2.5 will enhance workflow at the site, enable the use of the fixed-beam treatment rooms as well as more diverse patient positioning devices, and improve the quality of images generated by the system's integrated imager.

"We anticipate that the upgrade to ProBeam 2.5 will, by improving our treatment workflow and making available our two fixed-beam rooms, substantially increase our ability to provide clinical services to a growing and diverse patient population," said Carl Rossi, M.D., medical director of the Scripps Proton Therapy Center in San Diego, Calif. "We expect it will be a significant improvement in our facility's capabilities and will be an example of the continued development and flexibility inherent in the ProBeam treatment system."

"We were very pleased with the response of the Scripps clinical team when we turned over the fifth treatment room after commissioning," said Dr. Moataz Karmalawy, general manager of Varian's Particle Therapy division.  "Those who had experience with the commissioning process at other centers using other systems told us that this was the fastest ramp-up they had seen."

Varian is also pleased to announce that testing conducted recently at Scripps has demonstrated that the company's proprietary cone-beam CT solution, currently used on all TrueBeam machines, is compatible with ProBeam technology.  High-quality images have been generated using the system at Scripps, and this functionality will be made available to customers in 2015.  High quality kV imaging is already in clinical use.

Varian's ProBeam system, which will be on display at the meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) starting here at the end of this week, incorporates Varian's unique Dynamic Peak™ scanning technology for intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT), robotic patient positioning tools, and a comprehensive suite of motion management tools.  It incorporates an integrated 2- and 3-D imager for real-time image guidance, as well as the option of planning and managing treatments using Varian's world class Eclipse™ and ARIA^® software systems. 

In addition to the installation at Scripps, Varian proton therapy technology is also in place at the Rinecker Proton Therapy Center in Munich, Germany and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.  Varian has contracts to install ProBeam systems at seven additional centers at the University of Maryland in Baltimore; Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio; University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas; KFMC-King Fahd Medical City in Saudi Arabia; PTC St. Petersburg in Russia; and National Taiwan University in Taipei.

High resolution images are available in the Varian newsroom at the following URL: http://newsroom.varian.com/ProBeam.

About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, focuses energy on saving lives by equipping the world with advanced technology for fighting cancer and for X-ray imaging.  The company is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is also a premier supplier of X-ray imaging components, including tubes, digital detectors, and image processing software and workstations for use in medical, scientific, and industrial settings, as well as for security and non-destructive testing.  Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,700 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 www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

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SOURCE Varian Medical Systems