Patient Benefits

RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems represents a new revolution in cancer care. RapidArc enables your clinician to treat some types of cancer with great precision in less than two minutes.

• RapidArc is delivered with a medical linear accelerator, which is a large machine that generates high-powered X-rays and rotates around you as you lie on a treatment couch, delivering the beams from many angles. With RapidArc, the entire treatment is completed with a single rotation of the machine.
• RapidArc is a new approach to delivering image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IG-IMRT). Image guidance improves tumor targeting, and IMRT shapes the radiation dose so that it conforms closely to the three-dimensional shape of the tumor. That means more radiation is delivered to the tumor and less to surrounding healthy tissues.
• The treatments are fast. That makes it easier on you—you don’t have to hold still for long, and you’re in and out in a matter of minutes each day. With RapidArc, IMRT treatments that typically require at least 10 minutes can be completed in less than 2 minutes.
• A RapidArc radiotherapy system incorporates technology that makes it possible for your treatment team to position you for treatment with sub-millimeter accuracy. An On-Board Imager® kV imaging system mounted on the treatment machine provides high-resolution X-ray images of the targeted area just before each daily treatment.