Medical researchers have confirmed that the Edge radiosurgery system from Varian Medical Systems can deliver dose to a targeted tumor with sub-millimeter isocenter accuracy. The researchers, from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal and other teams from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI, will be making seven scientific presentations about the Edge system during the 2014 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) meeting taking place here from July 20 – 24.
The Champalimaud team worked with scientists from Varian to conduct “end-to-end” testing of the Edge system, to demonstrate that its diverse subsystems can work together to yield sub-millimeter accuracy when delivering dose.
“The Edge system is made up of many advanced subsystems for patient positioning, image guidance, beam shaping, real-time tumor tracking, and dose delivery,” said Calvin Huntzinger, M.S., senior director of surgical sciences at Varian. “While each of these systems is very precise by itself, it was important to demonstrate that the system as a whole can be accurate to less than a millimeter, because that’s what’s desirable when delivering high doses to tumors near critical organs and structures within the body.”
Investigators from the Henry Ford Health System will be delivering six presentations about their early work with the Edge™ radiosurgery system, covering a wide spectrum of clinical issues, from the accuracy of patient set-up for image-guided intracranial (brain) radiosurgery to methods for accurately commissioning a new Edge system. One of the Henry Ford teams will present preliminary data on the accuracy of dose calculations for treating small, elongated tumors with radiosurgery.
“Champalimaud and the Henry Ford Health System were the first institutions in the world to install Edge systems,” said Huntzinger. “Whenever you have a new technology, there are tremendous opportunities for the early adopters to put it through its paces and really show what it can do. These teams are demonstrating the capabilities of the system, and figuring out and documenting best practices that others will be able to follow.”
The EDGE radiosurgery suite combines Varian’s world-class technologies in an end-to-end solution for planning and delivering radiosurgery treatments. It integrates Varian’s most advanced medical linear accelerator—a machine that produces the high energy X-ray beams used to treat disease—with tools for real-time imaging, tumor tracking, motion management, and patient positioning. The Edge enables fast, accurate delivery of stereotactic radiosurgery for treating lesions, tumors, and conditions anywhere in the body where radiotherapy is indicated, including tumors of the lung, prostate, spine and brain.
