Presentations at the Third European Stereotactic Radiation Therapy and Whole Body Radiotherapy Workshop Highlight Clinical Outcomes and Emerging Trends

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Jul 06, 2010, 08:30 ET

Results Presented in Spine, Lung, Liver and Prostate Treatment Emphasized the Benefits of Whole Body Radiosurgery

SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, today announced highlights from the Third European Stereotactic Radiation Therapy and Whole Body Radiotherapy Workshop, held in Brussels, Belgium on May 28 and May 29. Event attendees included 220 health professionals, ranging from radiation oncologists and neurosurgeons to medical physicists and hospital administrators from 27 countries.

Focusing on new developments in the field, the independent Scientific Committee developed a multi-disciplinary educational event as an overview of the current state-of-the-art in intracranial and extracranial radiosurgery and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT). Data on clinical usage were presented in areas such as the management of CNS lesions as well as managing tumor movement in the spine, prostate, lung, and liver. The Scientific Committee was lead by Prof. Peter Levendag (Erasmus MC, Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands), and co-chaired by Prof. Vincent Gregoire (Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium) and Prof. Eric Lartigau (Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France),

"The extreme precision of technologies such as the CyberKnife System, along with better definition of the tumor through functional and morphologic imaging, give clinicians the ability to significantly accelerate the treatment by using higher doses per fraction," said Prof. Eric Lartigau, Head of Radiation Oncology Department, Centre Oscar Lambret, France. "The ultimate goal of this very exciting field in radiation oncology is to offer the most efficient treatment option to cancer patients."

Highlights of the Workshop included:

A study presented by Xavier Mirabel, M.D., from Centre Oscar Lambret in Lille, France, on the use of the CyberKnife System to treat primary and secondary liver tumors. The study, which looked at 84 patients from June 2007 to October 2009 (42 liver metastases and 42 hepatocelullar carcinomas (HCC) which were not candidates for surgical resection), showed that the CyberKnife System is a viable option for local treatment of primary and secondary liver tumors, with encouraging local control. It emerges as a strong alternative for patients who are poor surgical candidates or whose tumors are not amenable to resection. Dr. Xavier Mirabel also announced that a clinical trial is currently recruiting patients with HCC of less than 6 cm and that a European trial for liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma will open soon.
A study presented by Christoph Furweger, Ph.D., from the European CyberKnife Centre Munchen Grosshadern in Munich, Germany explored spinal radiosurgery in a population of 260 patients with cervical, thoracic, lumbar or pelvic/sacral tumors. Dr. Furweger evaluated clinical targeting precision and assessed patient motion data during fiducial free, single-fraction spinal radiosurgery using the CyberKnife System. Dr. Furweger concluded that, despite patient motion, sub-millimeter targeting precision could be obtained with fiducial-free spinal radiosurgery.
A presentation by Associate Prof. Iris Gibbs, M.D., from Stanford Medical Center, Stanford, Calif., reviewed the rationale, treatment technique and early results obtained between 1999 and 2007 using fractionated CyberKnife radiosurgery for the treatment of 474 patients with acoustic neuromas, with a focus on hearing preservation. After a median follow-up of 3.6 years, results are encouraging with durable tumor control and acceptable toxicity.
A study presented by Mary Ellen Masterson-McGary, Chief Physicist at the CyberKnife Center of Tampa Bay, Florida, USA (formerly of the CyberKnife Center in Naples, Florida), described the results of 155 patients treated with CyberKnife prostate radiosurgery in five treatment fractions for low and intermediate risk prostate cancer. According to Dr. Masterson-McGary, erectile function was preserved in 81 percent of patients who have been followed for two years or more, and the early (median follow-up 30 months) biochemical disease-free survival is 97 percent. Dr. Masterson-McGary noted that she found the results to be very encouraging, and will continue to follow-up and report on the clinical outcomes as the data mature.

About the CyberKnife^® 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 deliver more than 90,000 treatments worldwide and currently 200 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