American Hospital in Dubai Among the First in the Region to Offer Stereotactic Radiosurgery | Varian

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American Hospital in Dubai Among the First in the Region to Offer Stereotactic Radiosurgery

A leading Dubai cancer center, fully-equipped with Varian equipment and software, is the first in the United Arab Emirates to introduce RapidArc® stereotactic radiosurgery treatments.

The American Hospital has used its Varian Trilogy™ medical linear accelerator to deliver the radiosurgery treatments for patients diagnosed with brain metastases derived from metastatic lung cancer as well as non-cancerous brain conditions such as acoustic neuroma.

Most of the RapidArc treatments are delivered over five fractions, according to Tarek Dufan, MD, the hospital’s director of radiation oncology. “The fractionated treatments take less than 10 minutes each,” he says. “This approach offers great speed and precision while making the experience more comfortable for the patient, as they spend less time on the treatment machine than with conventional radiotherapy treatments.”

With RapidArc, the machine quickly delivers the treatment while continuously rotating around the patient, and the beam is constantly shaped and reshaped during the rotation to match the shape and size of the tumor. RapidArc makes it possible to deliver these sophisticated treatments in as little as two minutes. Studies show that faster treatments allow for greater precision, since there is less chance of patient or tumor movement during treatment delivery.1

Part of the Mayo Clinic global network, the American Hospital began offering advanced radiotherapy treatments to patients throughout the region in 2011. In addition to its external beam capabilities, the hospital houses a full suite of Varian brachytherapy equipment and software, which provides high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatments primarily for gynecological and breast cancer patients.

1Murphy M J. Tracking moving organs in real time. Seminars in Radiation Oncology. 2004 Jan;14(1): 91-100.