A second linear accelerator is giving patients at the Trinity CancerCare Center improved access to advanced radiation therapy.
Trinity Health finished installation of its second Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator in January 2021. This additional linear accelerator includes updated features that improve oncologists’ ability to precisely target cancerous tumors without affecting surrounding healthy tissue.
Shane Jordan, director of Trinity CancerCare Center, says the additional system will be used to complement the existing linear accelerator in treating a range of cancers, including breast, prostate, lung, abdomen, pelvic, brain, and head and neck cancers. “The addition of this second state-of-the-art machine as a companion to our existing linear accelerator has enabled us to further offer patients the latest technology available for treating cancer,” he said. “This investment ensures that cancer patients will have access to timely, lifesaving treatments for years to come.”
Linear accelerators use high-energy x-rays to deliver radiation treatments to patients. In addition, the Varian Truebeam offers treatment opportunities such as image-guided or stereotactic radiotherapy that enables oncologists to treat the most challenging cancer cases with speed and precision. “These machines use non-invasive tumor-destroying radiation to treat cancers throughout the body while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissue, thereby enhancing the success of the therapy,” Jordan said.
Prior to obtaining its new machine, the CancerCare Center utilized a single linear accelerator to support the growing number of patients in the region. “The current linear accelerator was installed in 2012 and has been utilized greatly over the past eight years,” Jordan said, noting that the added features with the additional machine will also be added to the existing linear accelerator, thus providing two twin cutting-edge treatment machines with identical capabilities.
“With the second machine, the CancerCare Center will continue to meet the growing need and offer the most advanced and best treatment options, while providing radiation treatment services closer to home,” Jordan said.
Purchase of the linear accelerator was funded in part with a $600,000 grant from Otto Bremer Trust to Trinity Health and the Trinity Health Foundation.