Four cancer patients became the first in Latin America to receive treatment using a fast form of image-guided radiotherapy that potentially enables doctors to improve outcomes while extending modern care to more patients. Doctors at Hope International Centro de Radioterapia of Guatemala are now treating four patients using RapidArc® radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), one with recurring prostate cancer, one with a nasal cavity tumor, one with rectal cancer, and one with recurring glioblastoma multiforme--an aggressive type of brain tumor.
Clinicians at the center, which treats patients from across Central America, carried out the first treatment for a 66-year-old attorney whose prostate cancer recurred a year after it was first treated using robotic surgery. His first RapidArc treatment was delivered in 3.16 minutes using two arcs, or rotations, of the machine around the patient. By comparison, conventional IMRT (intensity-modulated radiation therapy) treatments would have taken eight to ten minutes.
Using the image-guidance technology that is integral to the RapidArc treatment process, clinicians were able to detect a 2-3 millimeter displacement of the targeted tumor after they positioned the patient for his first treatment. "We could then make a very fine adjustment in the patient's position, to ensure that we were accurately targeting the tumor and sparing surrounding tissues to the greatest extent possible," said Luis A. Linares, MD, Medical Director.