Varian Medical Systems to Exhibit Technology Enhancements Designed to Improve Speed and Precision of Radiotherapy at ASTRO 2009

October 29, 2009

Company will showcase new capabilities designed to make treatments faster, easier, more accurate, and more affordable

CHICAGO, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ASTRO Booth # 2229 -- New technology enhancements from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), designed to make radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatments faster, more accurate, and easier to plan and deliver, will be on display at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in Chicago next week. The Varian booth at ASTRO will provide a glimpse into the company's R&D pipeline of future technologies for managing cancer care from diagnosis to survivorship.

"Varian's exhibit this year reflects our ongoing commitment to R&D, and the continual improvement of all of our technologies," says Dow Wilson, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "We're showcasing enhancements designed to make it simpler, faster, and easier for treatment centers to offer the highly-accurate image-guided forms of treatment that are opening the door to new possibilities for the treatment of lung tumors, for example, and other types of cancer that have been difficult to treat with radiation in the past."

Varian's Exhibit at ASTRO

Displays in Varian's booth at the McCormick Convention Center will cover the full range of the company's hardware and software products for radiotherapy treatment planning, image guidance, treatment delivery, and information and patient record management. Some of the highlights will include:

    --  RapidArc® radiotherapy technology.  Now in use at over 270 cancer
        treatment centers worldwide, RapidArc is being used to deliver IMRT, and
        also stereotactic body radiosurgery in the treatment of lung, liver,
        kidney, spine, and brain cancer, more quickly than was possible with
        earlier technologies.
    --  Megavoltage (MV) image guidance, a new capability that makes it possible
        to use a pair of megavoltage images to position patients for
        image-guided treatments.
    --  Varian application virtualization, which links geographically-dispersed
        workstations to Varian's software products, in order to facilitate
        collaboration across departments and streamline treatment planning and
        patient chart management.

    --  Acuros(TM) advanced dose calculation for brachytherapy, which speeds up
        brachytherapy treatment planning and enhances the accuracy of dose
        calculations.  In addition to the currently-available Acuros
        brachytherapy tool, a works-in-progress version

A Commitment to Open Systems

Also on display at ASTRO will be an interface that connects Varian's ARIA® oncology information system with TomoTherapy Incorporated's Hi-Art® and TomoHD(TM) treatment systems to allow for the use of Varian software in a mixed vendor environment. It provides for coordinated treatment delivery and enables automatic capture of billable activities. Similar interfaces to treatment delivery systems from other vendors are currently under development and will be shown at this meeting in the form of works-in-progress that are not yet available for sale.

Other Future Developments

Varian will showcase work on other future developments, including the following works-in-progress (i.e. not available for sale at this time):

    --  Motion management technologies.  Varian will show several methods for
        using real-time tumor position information, gleaned from implanted
        beacon transponders from Calypso or from surface imaging technologies
        from Vision RT, designed to either correct a patient's position during
        treatment, or to move the treatment beam using the multileaf collimator
        so that it tracks a moving tumor.
    --  4D cone-beam CT: Varian will showcase dynamic image verification
        technology, designed to make it possible to detect whether normal tumor
        motion is following the same trajectory from day to day, so that
        corrections can be made if changes have occurred.

    --  Treatment adaptation technologies.  Varian will show how a spectrum of
        treatment planning tools are being engineered to work together to enable
        image-guided adaptation of a patient's treatment plan over a multi-week
        course of treatment.  While many of the necessary tools exist now as
        separate products, in this exhibit Varian is highlighting the company's
        vision of a single uniform system that streamlines the workflow in
        support of clinical goals.

ABOUT VARIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,100 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, China, and Europe and in its 79 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this press release regarding future business, events, plans, objectives, expectations, estimates, and other similar matters, including, but not limited to, statements using the terms "designed to," "will make," and "makes it possible to" constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, the risks described in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports filed from time to time by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

    FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
    Meryl Ginsberg, (650) 424-6444
    meryl.ginsberg@varian.com

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems, Inc.