Software Designed for Assessing How Tumors Respond to Treatment

This provides the potential for clinicians to monitor the impact of anti-cancer drugs and radiation therapy early in the course of treatment, so they can adapt their treatment strategies and personalize treatment plans.

Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA, USA) presented its innovative software for assessing how tumors respond to therapy at the July 22-26, 2007 meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) in Minneapolis, MN, USA. The I-Response technology from Cedara Software (Mississauga, Canada) shows how tumors are responding to treatment at the biologic level, often before changes in tumor shape or size become visible. Varian holds exclusive global distribution rights for the I-Response technology within the oncology treatment market.

I-Response fits perfectly with our Dynamic Adaptive Radiotherapy (DART) initiative for offering products that help clinicians deliver cancer care that is tailored to each individual patient, stated Corey Zankowski, senior director for Varian's software business. This tool will help doctors make clinical adjustments much earlier, based on real-time information about how the patient's tumor is responding to treatment.

Varian exhibited the I-Response software at the five-day meeting, and also in a presentation by Dan Hamstra, Ph.D., M.D., a medical physicist from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA).

We feel that the future of cancer treatment lies in personalized care that is based on data about a particular patient's tumor and how it is changing over time, rather than a 'one-size-fits-all' treatment protocol that may work for some and not for others, Mr. Zankowski said. Varian is pleased to be able to offer our customers access to this powerful tool for adapting patient care.


Related Links:
Varian Medical Systems
Cedara Software