Age of Varian True Beam machine

Because I know Pratoman is thinking about this, I asked the techs this morning. The newest model (MSK Westchester) positions the radiation emitters automatically, whereas the older models (MSK Rockville Center) require the technicians to position the emitters, following the positioning guidance of the physicists’ model. Although in both cases the machine shapes the actual beam automatically, with the newer machine the arms of the machine are also automated.
Result is that the newer machine is faster by about 1/3 — with my treatment, for example, it takes about fifteen minutes from walking in tomwalking out, wheras the older machine would take twenty. Otherwise no difference, they said.

The techs likened the machine at Westchester to a Rolls Royce vs. a Cadillac at Rockville Center.
MSK Commack has one new, one older machine. Not sure about other sites but imagine Bergen, which opened this month, has the Rolls.

Andrew,

My hospital machine is older with the gerbils running on the treadmill powering the accelerator, faster then when the techs were cranking it by hand!

Hmmm where I go it’s new about s year old ..I’m out of ther in about 7 minutes

"I prefer the older machines where the techs had to wait for a lightning storm to get enough power to run the machine and patients were only treated on dark and stormy nights."

while you waited fearfully with a lightning rod up your butt ;^)

Stan, for me treatment itself is usually about seven minutes also but today it was closer to ten because they adjusted the table part way through. I was counting the time from walking in, getting onto the table, adjustment, attaching the mold, treatment, getting off the table, and walking out, which today was about 15, and the techs used that as a reference for the time with the older machine.

Prato, will ask about Clinac tomorrow unless Lupron brain kicks in!

I think my machine was current stuff but the software kept bugging out. It constantly froze up and needed to be rebooted. I wanted to look at the hardware but was scared of what I would find and see.

Prato, Clinac is what the techs were referring to as equal to but slightly slower (less automated) than True Beam. Both made by Varian.
Also, MSKCC radiation docs all participate in “chart rounds,” where they review the treatments, progress, and outcomes for one another’s patients, so there are eyes of the best people on what’s happening across their universe of facilities.