Cancer Patients in India Gain Access to Advanced Image-Guided Radiotherapy Treatments for the First Time <\/p>\n
Clinicians Begin Treating Patients Using New Technology From Varian Medical
\n Systems at Apollo Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
\n———————————————<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sept. 1 \/PRNewswire-FirstCall\/ —
\nCancer patients in the Indian state of Gujarat can now receive state-of-the-art image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) treatments using equipment from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), with the opening of a new radiation oncology center at Apollo Hospital, Ahmedabad. On Thursday, August 24, clinicians delivered the first IGRT treatment at the center to a prostate cancer
\npatient in his 70s.
\n The new facility was established through an alliance between the Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center (CBCC) of Bakersfield, California,
\nUSA, and Apollo Hospital Groups, one of the largest healthcare groups in South and South East Asia.
\n The CBCC facility at Apollo Hospital is the first treatment center in South Asia to offer IGRT using a treatment system that combines imaging and treatment technologies on a single machine. Radiation is delivered using Varian’s Clinac(R) iX linear accelerator equipped with an On-Board Imager(TM) device for imaging and tumor tracking.
\n “This is a great moment for cancer care in India,” said Gitesh Patel, CBCC’s vice president for business development. “We are offering Indian
\ncancer patients the same standards of care that we offer to our patients in the U.S. That meant outfitting the Indian center with Varian’s cutting edge
\ntechnology for efficient delivery of accurate and precise image-guided radiation therapy treatments,” said Ravi Patel, MD, founder of CBCC.
\n According to Vivek Bansal, MD, radiation oncologist at Apollo Hospital Ahmedabad, the first patient is continuing treatment with daily
\nradiotherapy sessions administered five days per week over a period of seven weeks. The treatment team uses the On-Board Imager prior to each
\ntreatment to precisely locate a set of gold markers that have been implanted into the patient’s prostate gland in order to accurately account for any changes in tumor position from day to day.
\n “The prostate moves around constantly due to normal physiological processes,” Bansal said. “With the On-Board Imager, we can detect very small displacements and make appropriate corrections. We use it in radiographic mode to detect the gold marker seeds and reposition the
\npatient, and then we generate a three-dimensional cone-beam CT image to verify the accuracy of our positioning corrections.”
\n The treatment system also incorporates Varian’s respiratory gating technology for synchronizing treatment with the patient’s normal breathing pattern. This will enable Bansal to treat lung and other tumors that move
\nas the patient breathes. In addition, the center has installed Varian’s technology for delivering image-guided brachytherapy — a way of treating
\ncancer from inside by precisely placing tiny radiation sources in or near a targeted tumor.
\n “Working together with Apollo Hospitals, we are bringing an array of cancer treatment technologies, resources, and clinical capabilities to the people of Gujarat,” said Gitesh Patel, adding that clinicians at the new
\nradiation oncology facility were recruited locally. In addition to their medical training, he said, they have attended educational programs
\nsponsored by Varian Medical Systems at the company’s training facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
\n The World Health Organization estimates that in India overall, there are over 800,000 new cases of cancer and nearly 600,000 cancer-related
\ndeaths documented each year. “The Varian technology facilitates fast, accurate treatment,” Gitesh Patel said. “Despite being one of the most industrialized states in India, Gujarat is afflicted with one of the most
\nalarming cancer incidence rates per 100,000 people. We’re going to help a lot of them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-india-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citynews.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}