COURT HOUSE – With a quick snip of a blue ribbon, physicians and staff at Cape Regional Medical Center officially opened a Varian Medical Systems TrueBeam on Mon., May 14. The device “delivers highly accurate image-guided radiosurgery treatments in just a few minutes per day.”
Joining the celebration in the Thomas and Claire Brodesser Jr., Cancer Center were its namesakes, the Brodessers, Dr. Albert S. DeNittis, M.D., cancer center medical director, who cut the ribbon, and Dr. David Cho, M.D., radiation oncologist at the center, and a member of its Cancer Care Team. Present at the brief ceremony was Joanne Carrocino, president and CEO, Terri Netz nurse director of Radiation Oncology, and Arlene MacDonald, chair of Cape Regional Medical Center Foundation.
MacDonald stated that $1 million toward the $5 million goal for the state of the art Varian TrueBeam system has been raised. The campaign for the apparatus was started in October 2011 with several major gifts from past donors, according to a newsletter.
The TrueBeam can precisely target various caners due to its special tools that “compensate for motion throughout treatment,” according to the same newsletter.
“TrueBeam delivers a full range of radiotherapy modalities, including image-guided radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiotherapy. RapidArc radiotherapy technology and Gated Rapid Arc, a new approach that compensates for tumor motion during treatment,” it continued.
As an example of the benefit of the TrueBeam, DeNittis stated that in “some cases we can reduce the number of treatments from 40 to five treatments. This is a tremendous benefit to the patient.”
The machine’s image-guidance tools generate 3-D anatomical images 60 percent faster, using 25 percent less radiation dose. Tumors and other abnormalities are targeted with submillimeter accuracy, the newsletter stated.
Because of its pinpoint accuracy, TrueBeam is capable of being used to treat different types of tumors, including prostate, abdomen, liver, lung, breast, and head and neck.
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