Varian Medical Systems has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has issued the 510(k) clearance for the use of a Surface Beacon transponder as a tracking device with the Varian Calypso system.
The Surface Beacon transponder will provide real-time patient motion and respiratory monitoring while the patient undergoes radiotherapy treatments. It temporarily comes in contact with the patient’s skin and tracks for real-time tracking and increases the accessibility of the Calypso technology to more cancer sites.
The Vice President – Marketing of the Oncology Systems business at Varian, Chris Toth commented that the surface transponder enables the user to monitor the real-time motion of the patient during treatment. It can be placed against the chest wall to closely monitor the respiratory motion while the patient undergoes radiotherapy. Toth added that the surface transponder has been developed to provide increased targeting in the most commonly occurring cancer types.
For cancer patients undergoing treatment of the left breast, the use of the transponder monitors the chest wall and provides the user a correlation with the heart’s position. This information allows clinicians to develop treatment methods for breast cancer patients that significantly reduce or eliminate dosage to the heart.
The Calypso system was acquired by Varian in October 2011. The Palo Alto-based company manufactures medical software and devices for treating medical conditions and cancer with radiosurgery, brachytherapy and radiotherapy. Varian also supplies X-ray imaging products, tubes and digital detectors for industrial inspection, cargo screening, medical and scientific applications.
Source: http://www.varian.com