A company at the forefront of the fight against cancer has won a £7 million contract from the Department of Health to supply radiotherapy equipment to hospitals.

Varian Medical Systems, based in Crawley, will supply hospitals in Liverpool, Manchester, Poole and London with the latest tumour-fighting technology.

The deal is part of the latest stage of the Government's Cancer Plan, published in 2000, to reduce the number of deaths caused by the disease and cut waiting times.

Varian, which employs 200 people at its UK headquarters in Gatwick Road, is the world's leading supplier of radiotherapy equipment for the treatment of the disease.

It has won contracts in every stage of the Cancer Plan in the past two years, amassing £40 million, but this latest deal is the biggest single contract.

The company has produced an imaging system which tracks the motion of tumours and ensures the radiation dose is accurately aimed at the tumour and not healthy tissue. It has already been exported to clinics in the United States, Sweden and Switzerland.

Now the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, near Liverpool, has ordered one of the systems under the Government's capital investment programme.

Walter Frie, Varian sales and marketing manager, said: "To be selected for five out of seven hospitals awarded so far in wave six of the Cancer Plan shows Varian's solutions are widely accepted as the most reliable, efficient and clinically advanced."

Dr Philip Mayles, head of physics at Clatterbridge, said: "The new on-board imaging system offers the possibility of a further significant step in improving radiotherapy treatments. This new device seems to be both well thought out and well engineered to work together with other system components."

In April, Varian passed a milestone when it sold its 100th Acuity Simulator a year after it was launched. The machine, which takes high-quality digital X-rays, has been exported to 25 countries and is used in several UK hospitals.

Thursday September 09, 2004