Just months after it was installed at Benbrook Medical Center in May, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center’s a new linear accelerator machine already is paying dividends when it comes to treating cancer patients in Butler County.

The Elekta Versa HD is the newest weapon in the arsenal at the center’s Butler location, which opened in 2013 as a joint venture between UPMC and what then was Butler Health System.

Five months into its introduction, the machine, which aims high-energy X-rays at the precise area of a cancer, has been instrumental in hundreds of cancer radiation treatments. UPMC spokesperson Karen Beardsley said the Versa HD has delivered 1,767 treatments as of the end of August, an average of 20 to 25 per day.

According to Dr. Veronica Eisen, a radiation oncologist at UPMC Hillman in But

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