Cancer patients to get benefit from Elekta's Versa HD system at Hôpital Riviera's radiotherapy clinic

Cancer patients referred to Hôpital Riviera's (Vevey, Switzerland) new radiotherapy clinic will soon benefit from the center's acquisition of Elekta's advanced new linear accelerator, Versa HD™. The system, currently being installed, will be the centerpiece of Hôpital Riviera's modern radiotherapy department, which is scheduled to begin patient treatments in June. Hôpital Riviera will maintain its collaborative clinical operations with Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV, Lausanne).

“With smaller and faster MLC leaves, dose modulation (IMRT) techniques like VMAT can help us be more precise in dose delivery and better protect organs-at-risk. The prospect of getting both of those features in a single delivery system makes it very promising for these advanced treatments.”

Versa HD, unveiled by Elekta on March 1, is designed to be the most sophisticated, high-versatility treatment system, giving clinicians the flexibility to deliver conventional therapies to treat a wide range of small and large tumors throughout the body, while also enabling treatment of highly complex cancers that require extreme targeting precision. Treatment of the most challenging cases is facilitated by high-definition beam shaping, in addition to a groundbreaking high dose rate delivery mode.

"High-definition, high-speed beam shaping combined with high dose rate delivery makes Versa HD the ideal SBRT machine," says Oscar Matzinger, M.D., radiation oncologist at Hôpital Riviera and CHUV. "Still, Versa HD will be our mainstay for basic and palliative treatments and support our future expansion of radiotherapy capabilities."

The first-ever combination of high-precision beam shaping plus high dose rate delivery in Versa HD will significantly improve the execution of SBRT (stereotactic body radiation therapy), Dr. Matzinger adds.

"An increasing share of radiation oncology patients in the future will be treated with SBRT, which historically has entailed relatively long treatment times," he says. "If we are talking about treating lung cancer or liver metastases, the faster we can deliver therapy the less chance for patient motion, and, in turn, the more precise therapy will be. The High Dose Rate mode within Versa HD will facilitate that."

"In addition, to achieve the best modulation of SBRT cases you need to have the most advanced MLC (multileaf collimator)," Dr. Matzinger adds. "With smaller and faster MLC leaves, dose modulation (IMRT) techniques like VMAT can help us be more precise in dose delivery and better protect organs-at-risk. The prospect of getting both of those features in a single delivery system makes it very promising for these advanced treatments."

The emergence of advanced, high-dose stereotactic therapies

"Some years ago, inoperable patients with limited metastatic burden were still treated with palliative care, but thanks to SBRT that trend has been changing. We can use aggressive local treatment in a bid to control their disease," Dr. Matzinger observes. "Versa HD has the potential to make SBRT even more precise and faster, making this technique a practical option, providing improved local control and better quality of life."

He adds that the speed of SBRT cases on Versa HD will not only provide clinical benefits for the patient, but it also will ensure these cases won't come at the expense of basic and palliative cases, which represent a large percentage Hôpital Riviera's patient volume.

Breast and prostate packages

Hôpital Riviera selected custom technology configurations for its Versa HD to support the requirements of treating breast and prostate cancers. Both packages are supported by Elekta's Clarity™ soft tissue visualization system to precisely define and target disease sites without invasive marker implants or the added ionizing radiation that some types of imaging require.

"Clarity seamlessly fuses with CT to allow us to better delineate the lumpectomy cavity in breast cancer patients - During treatment we can offer more precise targeting without the extra imaging dose to the patient," he says. "Similarly, we will use this system for transperineal imaging of the prostate to align the daily treatment with the prostate's position and eventually monitor that position during treatment. With Clarity, we can precisely localize the target to reduce treatment margins, and consequently, reduce toxicity to sensitive surrounding structures such as the rectum and bladder."

Hôpital Riviera claims the distinction as the first medical center in Switzerland, and among the first in the world, to install a Versa HD system.

"We are very excited and proud to have one of the first Versa HD systems," Dr. Matzinger says. "We look forward to continued collaboration and development with Elekta."