Elekta Versa HD

Elekta Versa HD is the linear accelerator at the heart of external radiotherapy at Biruni Hospital. A linear accelerator treats cancer without an incision: it generates a high-energy radiation beam, rotates around the patient, and delivers the dose to the tumor from many angles so the target receives the full prescription while each surrounding tissue receives only a fraction of it. The patient lies on the table for minutes, feels nothing during the delivery, and leaves the room unaided.

Shaping the beam to the tumor

The system's Agility multi-leaf collimator is a curtain of thin, individually motorized metal leaves that continuously reshape the beam's outline as the machine rotates, so the radiation field matches the tumor's silhouette from every direction. That geometry is what makes it possible to treat a target sitting next to a spinal cord, an optic nerve or a bowel loop: the dose falls off steeply exactly where the plan says it must.

Shorter sessions, and shorter courses

Versa HD delivers radiation at a high dose rate using flattening filter-free technology, which shortens the minutes each session takes. The larger gain for a traveling patient is at the level of the whole course. The system supports stereotactic techniques, SRS for the brain and SBRT for the body, which concentrate treatment into a few high-precision sessions instead of many weeks of daily visits where the indication allows it. How many sessions your plan needs is a radiation oncology decision based on your tumor, and the Radiation Oncology Center team states it in writing before you travel, because the session count is what sets the length of your stay in Istanbul.

Hitting a target that moves

Tumors in the lung and upper abdomen move with every breath. The system's imaging and motion management follow that movement and keep the beam on the target through the breathing cycle, which is the technical requirement behind treating lung, liver and pancreatic lesions with tight margins. Before each session, on-board imaging confirms the day's position matches the plan before any dose is delivered.

The plan is half the treatment

Every course on this machine begins days before the first session, with planning CT images and the Monaco treatment planning software, where the team designs the dose around your individual anatomy. The machine executes; the plan decides. Conditions treated with this combination at Biruni Hospital include primary and metastatic brain tumors, lung cancer, prostate and pelvic tumors, head and neck cancers, liver and pancreatic tumors, spinal lesions, and palliative treatments that relieve pain from advanced disease.