SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Accuray(TM) Incorporated, the world leader in image-guided full-body radiosurgery, announced today that Georgetown University Hospital in Washington D.C. has purchased a second CyberKnife(R) Stereotactic Radiosurgery System for its Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. This acquisition represents the 50th CyberKnife System purchased in the United States. This additional system will allow Georgetown University Hospital to meet an increasing demand for CyberKnife treatments. Georgetown’s CyberKnife Program has nearly doubled from 146 patients in the first year to more than 250 new patients in the second year. A growing number of hospitals such as Georgetown rely on the CyberKnife System as an essential tool in their cancer treatment procedures.
“The 50th purchase contract for the CyberKnife System is indicative of Accuray’s continued success as a business and it affirms our vision of transforming cancer treatments in ways that increase patient comfort, expand treatment options and improve outcomes,” remarked Euan Thomson, Ph.D., President & CEO of Accuray Incorporated. “This purchase represents yet another milestone in our successful progress, standing alongside such achievements as passing the 10,000 mark in the number of patients treated worldwide. We are thrilled that Georgetown University Hospital has had such success using the CyberKnife to treat patients, and delighted that it is the site of our 50th system.”
Linda Winger, Vice President, Georgetown University Hospital, stated, “In early 2002, Georgetown University Hospital saw the potential of the CyberKnife technology to address the needs of patients whose cancers couldn’t be treated by traditional radiosurgery systems. Over the past three years, we have fully realized this vision, using the CyberKnife to successfully treat hundreds of cranial and spinal tumors, as well as more than 50 lung, pancreas and liver tumors, many of which would have been diagnosed as ‘inoperable’ in years past.”
“The CyberKnife System continues to surpass our expectations,” said Fraser Henderson, M.D. “The CyberKnife provides robust management of pain, improves quality of life, and offers new treatment options for previously untreatable cancers of the spine, and also chest, abdomen and pelvis. We are exploring new ways in which this highly accurate modality can be used synergistically with chemotherapy and immunotherapy.”
Georgetown University Hospital began treating patients with the CyberKnife System early in 2002. Since that time, the hospital has augmented its core CyberKnife System with the Synchrony(TM) Respiratory Tracking System from Accuray. Synchrony is the first technology with the ability to continuously track and irradiate targets that move with respiration. An extraordinary advance in cancer treatment, dynamic radiosurgery allows physicians to use much tighter margins to treat tumors, with increased radiation doses. The result is that healthy tissues surrounding tumors are minimally affected, and patients can be treated in fewer sessions rather than multiple treatments
spread out over a period of weeks. These technological improvements and advances greatly expand the horizons of cancer treatment.
About the CyberKnife System
The CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System is a non-invasive, 100% frameless image-guided radiosurgery system that ablates tumors and other lesions anywhere in the body without invasive surgery. The CyberKnife System treats in single or staged (typically 2-5) sessions, and monitors internal reference points in the anatomy (skeletal landmarks or small implanted markers) to correct for patient movement in real time during actual treatment. It delivers multiple beams of precisely directed radiation that converge upon the tumor while minimizing injury to surrounding healthy tissue. It is the only system in the world that integrates real-time image guidance and robotic delivery of radiation to deliver proven sub-millimeter “total clinical accuracy.”
The unique CyberKnife technology was developed in cooperation with Stanford University. The CyberKnife is 510(k) cleared by the FDA (in the United States) and has CE approval (in Europe) to treat anywhere in the body where radiation treatment is indicated. To date, the CyberKnife System has treated over 10,000 patients worldwide.
About Accuray
Located in Sunnyvale, California, Accuray is a privately held corporation dedicated to revolutionizing the treatment of solid cancer tumors anywhere in the body by the precise delivery of high doses of radiation using the CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System. Through the development and marketing of the CyberKnife System, and participation in ongoing clinical research at prominent hospitals, Accuray and its customers are making stereotactic radiosurgery a viable and accessible option for cancer patients worldwide.
Accuray, CyberKnife and Synchrony are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Accuray, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Accuray Incorporated
CONTACT: Eric Lindquist, Chief Marketing Officer of AccurayIncorporated, +1-408-716-4706-1310, info@accuray.com
Web site: http://www.accuray.com/