V T System to revolutionize cancer treatment: experts

MN Report

KARACHI- With the introduction of the world’s most advanced linear accelerator, called `The Varian Trilogy System’, at Dr Ziauddin Hospital’s Oncology department, every physician hopes cancer transform from a terminal disease to a more manageable one, and hopefully, the dream will come true soon.

Highlighting the importance and effectiveness of the Varian Trilogy System, head of the cancer hospital, Dr Jawaid A. Malik, said that it allows radiation oncologists to treat patients with versatile options and pinpoint accuracies and Ziauddin Hospital is honoured to offer this revolutionary treatment to the cancer patients.

Dr Quratulain Badar, Assistant Professor & Consultant Radiation Oncologist, Ziauddin University Hospital said that the Trilogy is used to treat any type of cancer in almost any part of the body. 

More common cancers such as those head and neck, lung and prostate are treated more accurately and potentially to higher doses which, we hope, will result in higher cure rates, she said, adding  “The technology enables a physician to choose exactly the right moment to target a tumor, allowing increases to radiation doses while protecting healthy tissues.

“Of equal importance, the Trilogy system targets with high specificity a tumor that lies problematically close to the spinal cord, optic nerves, brainstem, skull base and other critical organs. This unparalleled accuracy can lead not just to better outcomes, but also to greater efficiencies, shorter hospital stays and reduced risk of complications” she explained.

It was also pointed out that the Trilogy machine can be used to deliver traditional radiation therapy in daily doses over weeks. It can also be used to treat lesions within the brain with stereotactic radio-surgery (SRS) in a single treatment, as well as stereotactic body radiation therapy over an interval of days.  Further capabilities include intensity modulated radiation therapy, 3D conformal radiotherapy, and fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy.

The prominent features of Trilogy machine are: Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), RapidArc, Gated RapidArc, Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), and Stereotactic radio-surgery (SRS).