PALO ALTO, CA - December 17, 2003 - Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR)announced today that its Board of Directors has set the regular Annual Meeting of Stockholders for February 19, 2004 with a record date of December 22, 2003. The meeting will be held at The Grand America Hotel, 555 South Main Street, at 1:00 p.m. MT. The meeting will be webcast by CCBN and can be accessed at Varian Medical Systems' web site at www.varian.com. To attend the meeting, please RSVP to Anne Rambo, at 650-424-5834, or anne.rambo@varian.com. The webcast will also be distributed over CCBN's Investor Distribution Network to both institutional and individual investors. Individual investors can listen to the call through CCBN's individual investor center at www.fulldisclosure.com or by visiting any of the investor sites in CCBN's Individual Investor Network. Institutional investors can access the call via CCBN's password-protected event management site, StreetEvents (www.streetevents.com). # # #