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LATEST CANCER TREATMENT FOR NYERS ON THE GO

In the time that it will take you to read this story, you could have received a potentially lifesaving cancer treatment.

A 72-year-old retired art director has become the first person in Manhattan to undergo the more precise, 75-second treatment called RapidArc, at the St. Vincent Hospital Cancer Center.

“Seventy-five seconds versus 20 minutes? You don’t need a study to tell you that a patient is going to be happier,” said SVCC Dr. Lawrence Tena.

The RapidArc machine rotates 360 degrees around the patient, creating a 3-D model for delivery of the radiation to cancerous tissue only. The less time a patient spends on the table, the less likely it is that healthy tissue will be radiated.

“I don’t know how people stay for 25 or 30 minutes,” said the elderly patient, who requested anonymity.

He’s had seven of 42 radiation sessions, each time being in and out in five minutes. Typical radiation treatments involve the same number of sessions.

St. Vincent’s is the first in the city to use the device, whose maker, Varian Medical Systems, said about 10 other hospitals had expressed interest.

Dr. Simon Powell, chairman of Sloan-Kettering’s Radiation and Oncology Department, said that its four area sites -in Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey – would be getting a newer version of the device but that the city facility would be the last to do so.

erin.calabrese@nypost.com