CASABLANCA, Morocco, Aug. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — A 60-year-old
prostate cancer patient has become the first person in North Africa
to be treated using fast and efficient RapidArc® radiotherapy
technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR). The
pioneering treatment took place at Al Kindy Hospital, a leading
private cancer clinic in Casablanca. Over 20 further prostate and
head/neck cancer treatments have subsequently taken place using the
advanced technology.
Doctors at Al Kindy say RapidArc has enabled them to give fast
and precise treatments that deliver the prescribed dose to the
tumor while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue and
organs. “RapidArc is a very effective way of improving the
precision of our radiotherapy treatments, particularly for head and
neck treatments, which are very common here in Morocco,” says
Hicham Tamri, medical physicist. “With RapidArc we are able to
deliver the prescribed dose precisely while lowering the risk of
complications such as dry mouth. For prostate patients, we can
better reduce exposure of the bladder, urethra and rectum.”
The advanced RapidArc system, which has been introduced
clinically on the hospital’s Varian Clinac® DHX medical linear
accelerator, delivers precise image-guided IMRT (intensity
modulated radiotherapy) up to four times faster than conventional
IMRT. The RapidArc IMRT beam quickly delivers the dose while
continuously rotating around the patient. Studies* show that faster
treatments allow for greater precision, since there is less
chance of patient or tumor movement during treatment delivery.
Mr. Tamri said the hospital had never offered IMRT treatments in
the past but the acquisition of new equipment and software from
Varian had enabled them to commence image-guided RapidArc
treatments. “We will be using RapidArc rather than fixed-beam
IMRT for all eligible cases in the future,” he said.
Youssef Rihane, Varian’s regional
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