London`s Barts Hospital Selects Advanced Radiotherapy Instruments

Developers behind an ambitious project to redevelop one of London’s leading cancer centers have ordered four new radiotherapy treatment machines from Varian Medical Systems. Barts and The London NHS Trust is
acquiring the new Clinac® linear accelerators as part of a high-profile £1 billion PFI (private finance initiative) scheme, with treatments due to commence next spring.

As the largest PFI project in the UK to date world renowned hospitals Barts in the City and the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel are both being redeveloped. Barts was founded in 1123 and is the oldest
hospital in Britain. Together, the hospitals provide comprehensive care for more than 700,000 patients each year.

The new machines equipped with On-Board Imager® devices and RapidArc® capability, will enable Barts to expand its intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) programme and offer advanced treatments to more patients. They will replace three older devices and will be joined by a two year-old accelerator that is being transferred from the current site and upgraded with RapidArc, giving the hospital five modern Varian linear accelerators when installed. “These modern and advanced treatment machines will enable us to offer highly conformal IMRT treatments to more cancer patients,” said Niall MacDougall, physicist at Barts, “We are also eager to introduce RapidArc treatments as soon as possible.”

Barts, noted for its head & neck IMRT programme, also works closely with its London peers The Royal Marsden in Fulham Road and University College London Hospital which also use Varian technology. “This is a
prestigious and long-awaited project that will add enormously to London’s radiotherapy provision and we are honoured that Varian’s equipment and software has been selected to be a part of it,” says David Scott, Varian’s UK Sales Manager.