Prestigious London Hospital Enters Long-Term Agreement with Varian Medical Systems

LONDON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The London Clinic is set to be the first UK hospital to offer cancer patients advanced RapidArc(TM) treatments as part of a long-term collaboration with Varian Medical Systems . The London Clinic, one of the UK's most established independent hospitals, will also be the first in the UK to acquire an advanced Trilogy(R) all-in-one linear accelerator.

As part of a 70 million pounds Sterling investment to mark its 75th anniversary, The London Clinic will introduce the radiotherapy services to its patients for the first time when its new state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre is opened in 2009.

As well as the Trilogy accelerator, the hospital has also acquired a second treatment machine -- a Varian Clinac(R) iX linear accelerator -- as well as a full suite of Eclipse(TM) treatment planning software.

Malcolm Miller, Chief Executive of The London Clinic, says: "This latest investment further highlights The London Clinic's long-term commitment to improving cancer care. This new technology will be core to the service offering in our new dedicated cancer treatment centre and will ensure we can provide our cancer patients with the most advanced radiotherapy treatments available.

"Following comprehensive clinical and technical evaluations, we are confident Varian Medical Systems is ideally suited to meet the needs of The London Clinic and our patients."

"As the first hospital in the UK to introduce RapidArc treatments on Trilogy, we will be able to carry out highly conformal 4D image guided radiotherapy that can be delivered far more quickly than with other IMRT systems," adds Dr. David Landau, Cancer Centre Steering Group, The London Clinic. "The flexibility of Trilogy to deliver RapidArc, stereotactic radiosurgery and dynamic IMRT will also provide the clinic with the ability to personalise radiotherapy treatments for every patient."

Varian's new RapidArc capability, introduced for the first time at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) meeting in Los Angeles this week, enables highly conformal treatment fields to be delivered very quickly. It allows clinicians to achieve precisely-sculpted 3-D dose distribution with a single 360-degree rotation of the linear accelerator gantry. RapidArc treatments can be delivered far more quickly than existing IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy) techniques, with beam times of just 2 to 3 minutes.

A fully-accessorized Trilogy accelerator, equipped with Varian's On-Board Imager(R) for fast and effective image-guidance, is capable of offering all standard radiation therapies as well as the most advanced treatments such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and whole-body stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

"We are delighted that The London Clinic has decided to enter a long-term agreement with Varian and we look forward to expanding access to the world's most advanced radiotherapy treatments for the UK's cancer patients," said David Scott, Varian's UK sales manager.

Editorial contacts: Varian Medical Systems: Neil Madle, +44 7786 526068 The London Clinic Press Office: Tracey Thompson/Jo Gulliver +44 (0)20 8786 3860 / pressoffice@thelondonclinic.co.uk 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, proton therapy, 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 X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 4,400 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 60 sales and support offices around the world. In Europe, the company operates manufacturing and engineering centers in Baden (Switzerland), Crawley (England), Haan (Germany), Helsinki (Finland) and Toulouse (France) and has headquarters for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEA) based in Zug, Switzerland. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.

About The London Clinic * One of the UK's most established independent hospitals * Located on Harley Street in the heart of London's medical community * Long-standing international reputation attracting leading consultants * Highly complex procedures in addition to routine surgery and medicine * 24 hour consultant-led Intensive Care Unit * Celebrating 75 years of inspired care -- 1932-2007