85 Percent of CyberKnife® Sites Within Europe Performing Prostate Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that 85 percent of European CyberKnife® centers are performing prostate SBRT to treat localized prostate cancer. There is an increasing trend towards treating prostate cancer patients with a hypofractionated regimen.

"More than 25 percent of our CyberKnife patients are being treated for prostate cancer with further growth anticipated," said Dr David Feltl, Head of the Oncology department, Ostrava University Hospital, Ostrava, Czech Republic.

At the Annual Congress of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) in London, UK this growth was supported by strong clinical evidence presented at a symposium focused on prostate cancer co-chaired by Prof. Eric Lartigau, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France, and Prof. Volker Budach, M.D., Ph.D., Charite – Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Germany.

"Offering CyberKnife non-invasive treatments to our patients provides excellent 5-year tumor control and very low level of toxicity as recently published in Radiation Oncology 2011," said Prof. Eric Lartigau.

"There is a strong academic interest to further drive prospective randomized clinical evidence for prostate SBRT with the CyberKnife System leading the clinical trend," said Prof. Volker Budach.

"The long term efficacy and toxicity outcomes of single and multi-center studies are supported by many key publications and presentations on CyberKnife prostate SBRT. Supported by an increasing foundation of solid clinical evidence we have seen a 20 percent increase in worldwide prostate cancer treatment as compared to a similar period last year," said Omar Dawood, vice president, Medical Affairs, Accuray Incorporated.

source: PR Newswire

Mirada Medical develops radiation therapy workflows for multidisciplinary cancer management

Oxford, UK, Philadelphia, PA, 3rd May 2011: Bridging radiology and radiation oncology, innovative RT workflows developed by Mirada Medical Limited are the latest in Mirada's portfolio of oncology products on display at the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) Anniversary Conference, London UK 8th-11th May 2011.

New RT workflows in XD3, Mirada's multi-modality and multi-timepoint oncology software, harness the power of CT-CT registration between the planning CT and PET/CT to provide functional imaging information for target delineation with accuracy and speed. XD3's registration engine also performs tri-modal fusion between PET/CT and MR in order to immediately realise the benefits of PET-MR for treatment planning, without having a PET-MR scanner. This software-based PET-MR presents powerful information during tumour assessment, staging, and delineation, with better visualisation of soft tissue abnormalities and tumours best localised using MR, such as lymph nodes in the neck.

Central to XD3 is the ability to assess, quantify and compare patient studies across unlimited timepoints, in custom display layouts, simultaneously. Through registration, users can easily propagate VOIs across timepoints, creating tables and graphs which track quantification statistics for comparison and reporting. Statistics are configurable for each user and include PERCIST, RECIST, WHO, among others.

source: Mirada Medical

ASTRO publishes evidence-based guideline for thoracic radiotherapy

Fairfax, Va., April 27, 2011 - The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has developed a guideline for the use of external beam radiation therapy, endobronchial brachytherapy and concurrent chemotherapy to palliate thoracic symptoms caused by advanced lung cancer. The guideline will be published in Practical Radiation Oncology, an official journal of ASTRO.

Many patients whose lung cancer has spread receive radiation therapy to treat symptoms related to cancer, such as cough, shortness of breath, bronchial obstruction and chest pain. However, the exact treatment approach can vary from doctor to doctor. This variation caused the Guidelines Subcommittee of ASTRO's Clinical Affairs and Quality Committee (CAQC) to identify the use of palliative thoracic (or chest) radiation therapy as a high-priority topic needing an evidence-based guideline.

This panel was co-chaired by George Rodrigues, MD, MSc, a radiation oncologist and clinician scientist at London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ontario, Canada, and Benjamin Movsas, MD, chairman of radiation oncology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

"Radiation therapy can be extremely helpful to alleviate symptoms caused by lung cancer, such as shortness of breath and chest pain," Dr. Rodrigues said.

source: ASTRO