Ceylinco Cancer Centre upgrades Linac with latest software and hardware

Ceylinco Healthcare Services Limited (CHSL) has announced the completion of a major upgrade to the Linear Accelerator at the Ceylinco Cancer Centre, to offer patients the latest improvements available in this form of radiation therapy.

The upgrade of the treatment planning software as well as associated hardware components of the Varian Clinax iX Linear Accelerator provides new tools for medical physicists to achieve better and improved treatment planning in addition to an enhanced level of security in terms of patient data safety and cyberattacks, the company said.
With this upgrade, Ceylinco Cancer Centre becomes the only hospital in Sri Lanka to use version 17.0.1 of the ‘Eclipse’ treatment planning software and the ‘Aria’ patient database management software with the Varian Clinax iX Linear Accelerator.

Alongside the software upgrade, CHSL also invested in the replacement of all the server computers, planning station computers, operator workstation consoles, Linear Accelerator’s Portal Vision and treatment console with the latest hardware for the smooth functioning of the systems, the company said.
“From inception, our mission has been to offer cancer patients in Sri Lanka access to the latest available radiation therapy at a cost that is significantly lower than the cost of treatment overseas,” CHSL Chairman R. Renganathan said. 

“To continue to achieve this, investments in periodic upgrades are essential, even though the costs of such upgrades have escalated, especially due to the depreciation of the rupee.”

A three-member team comprising of an application specialist, a hardware engineer and a software specialist from Varian Medical Systems visited the site and carried out the upgrades over three and a half days and the staff of the Ceylinco Cancer Centre, including the medical physicists and the radiation therapists, underwent comprehensive training, both online as well as on site after the upgrade.