New Telemedicine Venture Formed to Support Advanced Radiation Therapy At Cancer Clinics.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

PITTSBURGH--(BW HealthWire)--March 27, 2002

D3 Advanced Radiation Planning Services to Help Clinics Initiate IMRT 

Using Treatment Planning Software From Varian Medical Systems 

Leading experts in radiation therapy today announced the formation of a new company, D3 Advanced Radiation Planning Services, that will enable hospitals and clinics to quickly implement a promising cancer treatment called IMRT, or intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Using software from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE:VAR), D3 will offer patient treatment plans over a telecommunications network as well as training and other medical physics services needed for IMRT. The result will be to give cancer clinics and patients across the nation easier and more rapid access to this advanced form of radiation therapy. IMRT enables clinicians to potentially improve outcomes for cancer patients by concentrating higher radiation doses in tumors while protecting surrounding healthy tissue

D3 will initially offer its services to the UPMC Health System at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), which co-founded the venture. The new partnership will enable UPCI to rapidly implement IMRT throughout the UPMC Cancer Centers -- an extensive network of hospitals and clinics that treat more than 25,000 patients annually. D3 will offer its services to hospitals and free-standing clinics across the nation.

"With additional physics expertise, planning and support from D3, many clinics will be able to begin offering advanced radiotherapy, including IMRT, sooner, and that is good news for patients everywhere," said Joe Nicholas, CEO of D3.

"D3 will be the world's first radiation oncology telemedicine company, offering computer generated IMRT treatment plans to cancer centers over a secure broadband network," said Nicholas. "We will help clinics adopt IMRT by combining centralized treatment planning with in-depth training on treatment delivery, verification and quality assurance protocols while minimizing staffing needs."

Though promising for cancer patients, IMRT places entirely new and larger demands on medical physics staffs in radiation oncology centers. "D3 will provide hospitals and clinics, which lack the physics resources or funding for new technology, with a means of implementing IMRT," Nicholas explained. "We are making it possible for medical institutions anywhere in the country to provide patients with highly sophisticated radiation therapy without having to buy treatment planning software." Clinics will compensate D3 for treatment planning, and D3 will compensate Varian Medical Systems for the use of its software, on a "pay-per-plan" basis.

D3 will work directly with radiation oncologists and medical physicists at client hospitals and clinics. Clinics will use Varian's SomaVision(R) software to identify the tumor and then transmit patients' diagnostic images and dose prescriptions to D3. D3 will then use Varian's Eclipse(TM) and Helios(TM) software to develop treatment plans that map out beam angles, beam shapes, and exposure times needed to achieve the desired IMRT radiation dose intensities around the tumor. D3 will then transmit the plans back to the clinics for approval by the radiation oncology staff, which administers treatment to the patient.

"The formation of D3 is an innovative and exciting development for radiation therapy," said Dick Levy, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems. "It makes full use of Varian Medical Systems' comprehensive network of equipment and software products for all forms of radiation therapy, including SmartBeam(TM) IMRT. It's a big win for cancer clinics and their patients."

Jeffrey Shogan, M.D., deputy director of business affairs at UPCI. said that D3 will help UPCI's radiation oncologists to extend the highest quality in radiation treatment to patients at all local UPMC cancer centers. "D3 provides our centers with instant access to physicists who have broad clinical experience backed by years of research and development in IMRT treatment planning," he said.

As D3's first customer, UPCI will launch the new company's services throughout its cancer centers over the next several months. "We are excited to have the means to provide this type of advanced therapy to our patients," said Ronald B. Herberman, M.D., director of UPCI and UPCM Cancer Centers and associate vice chancellor for cancer research, University of Pittsburgh. "Cancer patients are already burdened by many hardships that result from their diseases. The expense and inconvenience of travel to receive advanced treatment should not be an added burden. With the help of D3's IMRT network and services, we will be able to ease patients' burdens by offering them convenient access to one of the newest and most promising approaches to radiation treatment in their local hospital or clinic."

While the adoption rate of IMRT has been rapid, less than five percent of the world's radiotherapy centers are now treating cancer patients with this technique.

For more information about D3, call [phone], or visit www.d3radiationplanning.com. For more information about UPCI, call the Cancer Information and Referral Service at 1-800-237-4PCI (1-800-237-4742), or visit http://www.upci.upmc.edu.

For more information about Varian Medical Systems, call 650 424-5782, or visit http://www.varian.com.

D3 is a radiation oncology service company that offers advanced radiation treatment planning to hospitals and freestanding institutions. By combining centralized treatment planning with in-depth training on IMRT treatment delivery, verification, and quality assurance protocols, D3 quickly and efficiently transitions medical institutions to use high quality IMRT, produce better clinical outcomes and provide improved care for patients.

UPMC Health System, which is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, is the leading integrated health care delivery system in western Pennsylvania, and one of the largest not-for-profit integrated health care systems in the United States. It meets comprehensive health care needs through UPMC hospitals -- the region's largest and finest network of tertiary, specialty, and community hospitals. The UPMC incorporates the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, (UPCI), a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center which is staffed by nationally and internationally recognized cancer care specialists that treat more than25,000 patients per year.

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE:VAR) of Palo Alto, California is the world's leading manufacturer of integrated cancer therapy systems, which are treating thousands of patients per day. The company is also a premier supplier of X-ray tubes and flat-panel digital subsystems for imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 2,590 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 50 sales and support offices around the world. In its most recent fiscal year ended September 28, 2001, Varian Medical Systems reported sales of $774 million. Additional information is available on the company's investor relations web site at www.varian.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for historical information, this news release contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements concerning the expected benefits and market acceptance of new technology such as IMRT and new products and business models such as the "pay per plan" services offered by D3, and any statements using the terms "anticipate," "believe," "will," "hopeful," "continued," "should," "could," "expect," "estimating," or similar statements are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include market acceptance and demand for IMRT and the D3 products and services; the impact of competitive products and pricing; the impact of health care reform and regulation and the other risks listed from time to time in Varian Medical Systems, Inc.'s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. assumes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements in this release because of new information, future events, or otherwise.