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FIRST PATIENTS UNDERGO TREATMENT WITH NEW TRILOGY LINEAR ACCELERATOR AT
TRINITAS COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER
The Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center this week treated the first
patients in New Jersey with the new Trilogy(tm) system for image-guided
radiotherapy (IGRT) from Varian Medical Systems. Trilogy's ultra-precise
robotics accurately tracks and adjusts for tumor movements at the moment of
treatment, then targets cancer and neurological lesions with sub-millimeter
accuracy. Trinitas is currently the only hospital in New Jersey with the
Trilogy technology.
"This new technology offers new hope to patients who might not have other
options. It helps protect healthy organs and tissues. In the case of head
and neck tumors, for example, we can now better target a tumor and greatly
increase the likelihood of preserving the patient's ability to talk and
swallow," said Linda Veldkamp, Chief Physicist and Director of
Radiation Oncology . "Trilogy
gives us the ability to precisely target tumors that lie extremely close to
critical anatomy like the heart, spinal cord, lung, rectum or salivary
glands."
The Trinitas Comprehensive Cancer Center is a five-story, $28 million
building that was dedicated on September 13th. It houses the Hospital's
state-of-the-art Medical and Radiation Oncology programs, the latest
equipment, and a host of additional supportive services designed to enhance
the patient experience. The Center, located on the main campus of Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is expected to become "the gold standard
for cancer care in our region," explained Gary S. Horan FACHE, Trinitas
President & CEO.
The Trilogy's fully-robotic imaging system can be used to deliver all forms
of external beam radiotherapy, including 3-D conformal (3D-CRT) to customize
the radiation beams to match the shape and contours of the tumor,
intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) that varies the radiation doses
according to the dimensions of the tumor, image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT),
and Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS), precisely focused overlapping beams
that deliver radiation treatment in single or multiple sessions. The
Trilogy's stereotactic technology can be used to treat prostate, lung, liver
and pancreatic cancers as well as brain tumors.
"The extraordinary power and flexibility of the Trilogy system assures us
that we can design a treatment plan that gives our patients the best and
most appropriate treatment possible," said Veldkamp. "By combining
the most powerful radiotherapy treatment machine with high-quality imaging,
tracking, and monitoring devices, Trilogy allows us to deliver the most
accurate treatments possible in the shortest amount of time. That translates
into faster treatments, greater patient comfort, and the potential for
better outcomes."
"Radiation therapy is used today in more than half of all cancer treatments
due to its unique clinical advantages, and it is becoming steadily more
effective with new technologies that permit ultra-precise dose delivery,"
said Veldkamp. "With this new system, we have the potential to
substantially improve cancer treatment outcomes by doing a better job of
protecting healthy tissue while delivering more powerful radiation doses to
tumors and other abnormalities."
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About Trinitas Regional Medical Center
Trinitas Regional Medical Center is a full service healthcare facility and a Catholic
teaching hospital sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth,
serving those who live and work in Eastern and Central Union County. It is
the result of the merger of Elizabeth General Medical Center and St.
Elizabeth Hospital in 2000. Operating on two major campuses, Trinitas Regional Medical Center offers 531 beds, including a 120-bed long-term care center.
Trinitas Regional Medical Center provides comprehensive medical/surgical services,
emergency services, senior services, adult and child/adolescent psychiatric
care, cardiac care, cancer services, renal services, an infectious disease
program, maternal/child health services including a high-risk newborn
nursery, inpatient pediatric care, diabetes management center, wound healing
center, sleep disorders center and a bloodless medicine program.
About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE:VAR) of Palo Alto, California is the
world's leading manufacturer of integrated cancer therapy systems, which are
treating thousands of patients per day. The company is also a premier
supplier of X-ray tubes and flat-panel digital subsystems for imaging in
medical, scientific, and industrial applications. Varian Medical Systems
employs approximately 3,300 people who are located at manufacturing sites in
North America and Europe and in its 55 sales and support offices around the
world. Additional information is available on the company's investor
relations web site at
http://www.varian.com.
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