Varian Medical Systems Introduces Radiotherapy Treatment Planning Courses at Leading Russian Cancer Center

MOSCOW, May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Radiotherapy practitioners in Russia can receive local-language training on advanced treatment planning techniques thanks to an initiative by Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), the world leader in radiotherapy and radiosurgery. Varian is introducing courses at a specially-equipped facility within one of Russia's leading cancer centers, Blokhin Russian Scientific Center of Oncology in Moscow. The first course took place last week.

"The Russian government is investing in modern radiotherapy equipment to treat its growing cancer population and it is crucial that clinical teams are trained in the safe and effective use of Varian products and in the advanced treatment planning techniques that drive today's fast and precise treatments," says Jens Groll, Varian's EMEA education manager. "Blokhin Russian Scientific Center of Oncology kindly made the space available for us to equip a room with ten workstations and our Eclipse® treatment planning software, and we hope to run up to ten courses a year, accommodating nine students at a time."  

Varian has appointed a Russian trainer and has made all training materials available in the local language. Students will come from throughout Russia and neighboring countries such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Professor, Academic M.I. Davidov, director of Blokhin Russian Scientific Center of Oncology, says, "Our oncology center is already the training base for local medical schools and universities and Varian courses conducted here will do a great deal to increase the qualification level of Russian-speaking medical physicists and radiation oncologists."

Eclipse is the market-leading treatment planning software, used by the majority of global radiotherapy departments. It is optimized to help deliver advanced radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and fast and precise volumetric treatments such as RapidArc®. Recent advances to Eclipse, such as new SmartSegmentation® Knowledge-Based Contouring, make planning more straightforward.

Radiotherapy in Russia

There are more than 120 radiotherapy centers in the Russian Federation and the government-backed Federal Oncology Program and other regional modernization schemes have been put in place to stimulate replacement of the country's large installed base of older radiotherapy systems. According to the World Health Organization, cancers with the highest incidence in Russia are breast, prostate, lung and colorectal, while the highest mortality rate is for lung cancer. 

Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786 526068

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,000 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems

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