RapidArc® is advanced technology from Varian Medical Systems that improves dose conformity to the tumors while significantly shortening treatment time. The first installations in Asia took place in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and CGMH was the first hospital in Taiwan to install this cutting-edge technique.

1. RapidArc is a type of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) that delivers a precisely sculpted 3D dose distribution with a single 360- degree rotation of the linear accelerator gantry. Compared to fixed- angle treatment plans, it can spare more normal healthy tissue.
   
2. This machine delivers an intensity modulated plan using the newest type of linac accelerator through automatic computer controls, giving the radiation dose to the tumor in a precise and fast manner. 
   
3. Volumetric modulated arc therapy differs from existing techniques like helical IMRT (e.g. Tomotherapy) because it delivers a dose to the whole volume, rather than slice by slice.
   

Advantages

1. By using multiple intensity modulated fields through a single arc delivery, RapidArc® can improve patients’ quality of life through the most optimized dose distribution. 
   
2. RapidArc® delivers treatments two to eight times faster than our fastest dynamic IMRT treatments today. Because RapidArc® delivers the whole volumetric dose, one treatment takes less than two minutes to finish. It can reduce dose error caused by organ or body motion during treatment and minimize discomfort caused by long treatment time.
   
3. Compared with IMRT, intensity volumetric arc therapy can use less radiation output with the same prescribed dose. It can reduce whole body scattered doses to the patient. 
   
4. It has Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) and On-Board Imager (OBI) image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) technologies for patient positioning.