Varian Medical Systems, a unit branched out of Siemens Healthineers, has devised a new tool for the imaging and tracking of tumors. The HyperSight system gives doctors the ability to capture images in literal seconds as well as calculate changes in tumors and adjacent organs over time. That critical data will be used to adapt patients’ treatment plans.
A duo of Varian’s image-guided radiation therapy systems, Ethos and Halcyon, that feature the new tool recently earned regulatory approvals from the FDA and scored CE mark clearances in Europe, and the company hopes to put the technology in the hands of clinicians in those territories as soon as possible. Halcyon received high marks for its use in the first official HyperSight-equipped procedure at Penn Medicine.
While either an Ethos or Halcyon machine emits its radiation therapy, the HyperSight con-beam computed tomography (CBCT) tech carries out its duties. Compared with many leading CBCT scanners, which can take as much as a full minute to perform their function and often require a patient to repeatedly hold their breath for steady image capture, HyperSight average six seconds and is prized for its unobtrusive nature. Moreover, as Varian claims, its images are both larger and higher-contrast than those from competitors.
