Treatment platform to answer the global cancer challenge

"The global cancer challenge is enormous," said Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "It is expected that there will be 24.6 million cancer cases diagnosed annually by 2030, and there is an acute shortage of equipment and trained clinicians".

"With the innovations in this new technology platform, the system will deliver high quality Halcyon treatments that empower clinicians to care for many more patients. At Varian we are very excited with the introduction of Halcyon to be taking another big step toward advancing cost-effective cancer care worldwide."

The driving focus of the human-centreed, user-friendly design of Halcyon was to automate, streamline and simplify virtually every aspect of treatment. The result is an advanced system that is more comfortable for the patient while delivering ease of use for healthcare providers, accelerated installation timeframes, expedited commissioning, simplified training, and automated treatment.

With its streamlined workflow, Halcyon only requires nine steps from the start to the end of treatment compared to up to more than 30 steps with older technologies nearing end of life. Halcyon is well suited to handle the majority of cancer patients, offering advanced treatments for prostate, breast, head & neck, and many other forms of cancer.

Featuring a 100cm gantry opening, which is larger than those on standard CT machines, Halcyon is capable of rotations 4x faster than c-arm gantries for rapid imaging and treatment. The system is also capable of fast and sharp volumetric imaging in as little as 15 seconds. With Halcyon treatments, a complex image guided IMRT plan is clinically accelerated compared to those delivered on traditional devices.

To support the gantry rotation speed, while also delivering the treatment dose precisely to the targeted area, Halcyon features a patented dual-layer multi-leaf collimator (MLC), an innovative new technology.

Moving twice as fast as traditional MLCs, the Halcyon MLC has a "stacked and staggered" design that enables advanced treatment techniques. The unique capabilities of the system provide a pathway to adaptive radiotherapy as well as opportunities for research into new treatment protocols.

To assist in the reduction of time and construction costs from installation to first patient treatment, Halcyon comes pre-commissioned, requires less shielding than traditional systems, can fit in a vault as small as 5.9 meters (19.68 feet) x 5.539 meters (18.17 feet) x 2.743 meters (8.99 feet) high and can be installed in two weeks or less.

As part of its human-centreed, user-friendly design, large touchscreens are installed on both sides of the machine to assist in easy patient set-up. For increased patient comfort, Halcyon is up to 2x quieter than other systems, has a low couch height for easy patient access, and soft indirect ambient lighting in the gantry opening.

To create a closer connection between patient and therapist during Halcyon treatment, the system includes an integrated couch-mounted camera for the therapist to watch over the patient during treatment, and an integrated sound system that makes it easy for patients to converse with the therapists.