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Hospital in India treats 10,000th patient with RapidArc radiotherapy

by Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | June 30, 2015
Rad Oncology Radiation Therapy
Varian's RapidArc
radiotherapy technology
A three-year-old with a brain tumor was the 10,000th patient treated at Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad, India, with Varian Medical System’s RapidArc radiotherapy technology.

RapidArc technology has been in operation at the hospital for six years, where it has replaced conventional "static-field" intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment. Yashoda was the first hospital in India to utilize this technology and it treats patients from throughout the southeast part of the country.

Conventional IMRT treatments have to rotate several times around the patient or repeatedly start and stop to treat the tumor from different angles, but RapidArc — used on linear accelerators — can deliver the dose to the whole tumor in a 360 degree rotation, in less than two minutes.

Since the procedure is so fast, Yashoda no longer has a wait list for radiotherapy treatment. They typically begin the treatment within two days of the patient undergoing CT stimulation.

More than half of the procedures that Yashoda uses RapidArc for involve brain, head and neck tumors. As was the case with the 10,000th patient, who has reportedly responded well to the treatment.

Even though Yashoda is a private cancer center, about 20 percent of the RapidArc treatments are performed free of charge for those who cannot afford it. The hospital sends a bus to local villages several times a month to screen patients for cancer and transport them back to the hospital for treatment.

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