Liverpool, England, February 4th, 2010 — UK cancer patients in the North West will gain access to the latest robotic radiosurgery treatments with the announcement by a leading cancer centre that it has ordered the country’s first Novalis Tx™ radiosurgery platform from Varian Medical Systems and BrainLAB. The system, which offers an efficient and effective alternative to surgery for cancer and other abnormalities of the brain and body, will start treating patients when Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology’s new satellite centre opens in 2011.

The versatility of the Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform will make it possible for doctors at the Centre to offer the most appropriate form of treatment based on patients’ specific needs, from stereotactic radiosurgery—a very fast treatment designed to eradicate a tumour or lesion in a single session—to longer courses of image-guided radiotherapy, with lower-dose treatments spread out over more sessions.

Regardless of the type of treatment prescribed, the powerful Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform can deliver it quickly, so that patients spend little time immobilized on the treatment table. “Fast treatments are easier on the patient,” says Clatterbridge Senior Research Radiographer Angela Heaton. “It’s hard for anyone to hold still for long periods of time and movement can compromise treatment accuracy. With the Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform, treatments that would have taken up to an hour or more using other techniques can be completed in just minutes, with no compromise in accuracy.”

The robotic Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform comes complete with Varian’s RapidArc® capability for fast and effective radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments. Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology was the first hospital in the UK to treat using RapidArc technology in December 2008.

“The Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform will allow us to treat more patients with stereotactic radiosurgery,” says Mr. Mohsen Javadpour, Consultant Neurosurgeon at The Walton Centre, Liverpool, which will be sharing the new system with Clatterbridge. “It can be used to treat tumours that are inoperable or when surgery presents too high a risk to the patient. This technology helps to deliver highly precise treatment to the tumour with minimal side effects while protecting the surrounding healthy tissue, so we are able to confidently address even the most complex conditions.”

The Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform combines a powerful linear accelerator, which rotates around the patient to deliver treatment beams from any angle with a set of advanced image guidance and motion management tools that guide patient set-up and positioning, and monitor motion during treatment. A high-definition multi-leaf collimator shapes the treatment beam so it matches the shape of the tumour from every angle. Other radiosurgery devices utilise circular beams to treat. As most lesions are irregular in shape, a circular dose does not completely cover the exact shape of the tumour. The Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform can be used to deliver frameless radiosurgery treatments, a more patient-friendly alternative to other systems that require immobilization with a head ring that attaches to the skull.

“Targeted beams are delivered without an incision from outside the body to destroy tumours or other abnormalities, so patients treated in this way can avoid lengthy recovery periods, and many of the complications often associated with conventional invasive surgery,” said Dr. Brian Haylock, Clinical Director for Radiotherapy at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology. “Novalis Tx radiosurgery technology offers us unparalleled image guidance tools and treatment beam sculpting capabilities, so we can achieve a precise level of targeting to protect more of the patient’s healthy tissue during the procedure.”

The Novalis Tx radiosurgery platform also includes:

• Radiosurgery treatment planning software that allows an inter-disciplinary approach through a web-based network, so that consultant oncologists can easily confer with colleagues in neurosurgery.
• A 6D robotic treatment couch that moves in all three dimensions and also tilts and pivots providing more options for ultra-precise patient positioning.
• A comprehensive oncology information system that compiles patient data into one electronic medical record, eliminating the need for paper files and films.

Image-guided radiosurgery involves efficient delivery of precisely focused, high-energy radiation to a localized area to destroy tumours throughout the body that often cannot be addressed by conventional surgery, including some malignant and benign lesions, brain metastases, arteriovenous malformations, and other functional conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia.

About Clatterbridge Centre

Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of 2.3 million covering Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, the Isle of Man and West Lancashire.

The Wirral-based Trust employs 650 staff and provides specialist radiotherapy and chemotherapy services and delivers more than 112,000 treatments to patients every year. Rehabilitation and support services are also provided and visiting medical and nursing teams deliver specialist cancer services across seven general hospitals in the region.

Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology’s vision is to provide word class cancer care; we will achieve this by putting people first, achieving excellence, being passionate about what we do, always improving our care and being committed to our future.

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, 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 centres and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,100 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, China, and Europe and in its 79 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.

About BrainLAB

A pioneer in the field of radiosurgery, BrainLAB develops, manufactures and markets software-driven medical technology, enabling more precise, less invasive procedures. Among the core products are image-guided systems and software that provide highly accurate real-time information used for surgical navigation and radiosurgical planning and delivery. BrainLAB systems and software are leveraged to provide clinicians with an information portal to more effectively access and interpret diagnostic scans and other digital medical information for better informed decisions. BrainLAB solutions allow for expansion from a single system to operating suites to digitally integrated hospitals, covering all subspecialties from neurosurgery, orthopedics, ENT, CMF to spine & trauma and oncology. With more than 4,600 systems installed in more than 80 countries, BrainLAB is a market leader in image-guided technology. The privately held BrainLAB group, founded in 1989, is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and today employs more than 950 people in 16 offices across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. For more information, please visit www.brainlab.com.