New Elekta Radiation Therapy Technology Takes Weeks Off of Lung Cancer Treatments

ATLANTA, Sept. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – On September 4, Kettering Medical Center (Kettering, Ohio) became the first clinic in North America to use Elekta's Versa HD™ system to treat a patient, a 71-year-old woman with medically inoperable lung cancer.

The rapid speed of radiosurgery with Versa HD enabled Kettering physicians to reduce the number of treatment sessions for this patient from seven weeks to three days. In addition, each treatment session decreased from 40 minutes to less than 10 minutes.

"With Versa HD, we can cut total treatment times for our patients by at least three-to four-fold," says Douglas Einstein, MD, PhD, Chairman of Radiation Oncology at Kettering Medical Center. "This new technology has the potential to allow us to add more patients to the daily radiotherapy schedule, including patients with long commutes because the number of sessions could radically decrease. Just as important, the decreased treatment time per session will improve the patient experience.

"For example, lung cancer patients who receive radiosurgery may have their arms raised for a 40-minute session and that can be difficult for some patients," he adds. "The High Dose Rate mode of Versa HD allows us to shorten radiation beam delivery time and improve patient comfort in radiosurgery cases."

In 2012, an estimated 226,160 new cases of lung cancer were expected to be diagnosed in the US, representing almost 14 percent of all cancer diagnoses.[1]

"We can deliver advanced, state-of-the-art treatment with Versa HD and do it in a way that it not only effectively treats a patient's cancer, but also substantially decreases the impact of treatment on their quality of life," Dr. Einstein says.

To learn more about Versa HD, visit www.VersaHD.com.

Versa HD is not available for sale or distribution in all markets.

For further information, please contact:
Johan Andersson, Director, Investor Relations, Elekta AB
Tel: +46 702 100 451, email: [email protected]  
Time zone: CET: Central European Time

Michelle Joiner, Director, Global Public Relations and Brand Management, Elekta
Tel: +1 770-670-2447, email: [email protected]
Time zone: ET: Eastern Time

About Elekta
Elekta is a human care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. The company develops sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools and treatment planning systems for radiation therapy, radiosurgery and brachytherapy, as well as workflow enhancing software systems across the spectrum of cancer care. Stretching the boundaries of science and technology, providing intelligent and resource-efficient solutions that offer confidence to both healthcare providers and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives.

Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 6,000 hospitals worldwide. Elekta employs around 3,500 employees globally. The corporate headquarters is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on the Nordic Exchange under the ticker EKTAb. Website: www.elekta.com.

[1]  American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures, 2012.

SOURCE Elekta