First Patients Treated Using Next Generation CyberKnife System at Oklahoma CyberKnife Center SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 5
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated
(Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today
that the first patients were treated using the next generation CyberKnife(R)
Robotic Radiosurgery System that was recently installed at the Oklahoma
CyberKnife, LLC in Tulsa, OK. The next generation CyberKnife System, which
features new technologies and system upgrades announced at the 2007 American
Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology Annual Meeting, is capable of
delivering state-of-the-art radiosurgery with significantly reduced treatment
planning and delivery times.
Treatment results on the Oklahoma CyberKnife, LLC's first day were
ground-breaking. While treatment times will vary based upon case complexity
and type of cancer, the first patient treated for an intracranial lesion was
completed in only 16 minutes. The next patient, treated for non-small cell
lung cancer, required only 27 minutes of treatment time.
Incorporating all of the newest enhancements, the next generation
CyberKnife System achieved a considerable reduction in treatment times. Using
the latest advancement in treatment planning, Sequential Optimization enabled
treatment plans to be developed in as little as 15 minutes. With the new 800
monitor unit/minute linear accelerator treatment times were reduced with a 30
percent faster rate of dose delivery as compared to previous systems. Further,
the recently launched Iris(TM) Variable Aperture Collimator enabled very
conformal, multi-collimator treatments to be rapidly delivered to even the
most complex targets. And with the new Optimized Path Traversal feature,
treatment times were further reduced with more efficient robotic motion.
"This new CyberKnife System configuration now allows us to deliver
radiosurgical quality treatments almost as fast as radiation therapy," said
Greg Spurlock, chief operating officer of US Radiosurgery, the managing
partner of Oklahoma CyberKnife, LLC. "With the CyberKnife System however, the
entire course of therapy is completed in one to five treatments. Compared to
the two month regimen of 30 to 40 treatments required with conventional
radiation therapy, the CyberKnife System clearly benefits both the patient and
the provider."
Lung cancer treatments with the CyberKnife System are typically completed
in three sessions. The net result of the introduction of these new
technologies is to deliver an entire course of radiosurgery in about 1.5
hours. The shorter treatment regimen of CyberKnife radiosurgery not only
improves patients' quality of life by not requiring a prolonged course of
daily treatment visits, it can also lighten the burden on healthcare
providers, saving time, expense and overhead, while also providing for
significantly greater patient throughput.
"For all radiation delivery systems, plan quality and treatment time have
historically had an inverse relationship," said Eric P. Lindquist, senior vice
president and chief marketing officer of Accuray Incorporated. "While other
radiosurgery systems actively promote fast treatment times, plan quality often
suffers accordingly. Integrating all of the latest technologies, CyberKnife
treatment times can now be reduced considerably with absolutely no sacrifice
in treatment quality."
While Oklahoma CyberKnife, LLC purchased its CyberKnife System with all
the next generation upgrades included, those same upgrades were made available
to existing customers through Accuray's Diamond Elite Service Agreement, which
enables customers to choose the right upgrades and payment plans to fit their
technology strategy.
"We are very pleased with this new ability to efficiently deliver the
highest quality, state-of-the-art radiosurgery to the Tulsa community," said
Spurlock.
About the CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System
The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the world's only robotic
radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body non-
invasively. Using continual image guidance technology and computer controlled
robotic mobility, the CyberKnife System automatically tracks, detects and
corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time throughout the treatment.
This enables the CyberKnife System to deliver high-dose radiation with
pinpoint precision, which minimizes damage to surrounding healthy tissue and
eliminates the need for invasive head or body stabilization frames.
About Accuray
Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a
global leader in the field of radiosurgery dedicated to providing an improved
quality of life and a non-surgical treatment option for those diagnosed with
cancer. Accuray develops and markets the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery
System, which extends the benefits of radiosurgery to include extracranial
tumors, including those in the spine, lung, prostate, liver and pancreas. To
date, the CyberKnife System has been used to treat more than 40,000 patients
worldwide and currently more than 130 systems have been installed in leading
hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit
www.accuray.com .
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SOURCE Accuray Incorporated
