TomoTherapy and NELCO Partner to Reduce Radiation Therapy Construction Costs

MADISON, WI, Nov 23, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- TomoTherapy Incorporated /quotes/comstock/15*!tomo/quotes/nls/tomo (TOMO 3.53, 0.00, 0.00%) , maker of advanced radiation therapy solutions for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, today announced availability of a shielding solution that enables hospitals and cancer centers to quickly, easily and inexpensively build out treatment vaults that are properly shielded for use of the TomoTherapy(R) radiation therapy system. The Total Shield(TM) by NELCO, the worldwide leader in designing, manufacturing, and installing specialized products and services for the medical, industrial, and construction fields, is a customized shielding enclosure designed to fit around a TomoTherapy unit, making it possible for the radiation therapy system to be placed into existing under-shielded vaults or other treatment rooms where there may not be enough space to install necessary shielding using the existing infrastructure.

Total Shield provides hospitals and cancer centers with the flexibility to put the TomoTherapy system in an existing space, which may be too small or may not include enough shielding for modern intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) devices. Instead of adding shielding in the walls, the Total Shield enclosure is designed to wrap around the TomoTherapy system itself.

By taking this approach, TomoTherapy customers can potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in shielding costs and eliminate the months it takes to install conventional shielding solutions. Total Shield can be installed in just a matter of days. Additionally, because the Total Shield can be easily removed, it can be reused if the TomoTherapy system is eventually moved to a new location.

source: TomoTherapy

Smoking during radiation therapy for head and neck cancers linked to poorer outcomes

Smokers who don’t quit before radiation therapy for throat, mouth and other head and neck cancers fair significantly worse than those who do, research from the UC Davis Cancer Center has found.

Allen Chen, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UC Davis Cancer Center, found that head- and neck-cancer patients who continue to smoke during radiation therapy have poorer 5-year overall survival and higher rates of disease recurrence than those who quit smoking prior to treatment.

The study, published online recently in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, should help oncologists counsel patients about the benefits of quitting smoking after a diagnosis of head and neck cancer, said Chen, lead author of the study.

“I always tell patients, ‘You should really stop smoking,’ but I had no tangible evidence to use to convince them that they would be worse off if they continued to smoke,” Chen said. “I wanted concrete data to see if smoking was detrimental in terms of curability, overall survival and tolerability of treatment. We showed continued tobacco smoking contributed to negative outcomes with regard to all of those.”

Chen and colleagues reviewed medical records of 101 patients with newly diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck who continued to smoke during radiation therapy, and matched those patients to others who had quit prior to starting radiation therapy for their head and neck cancers.

source: UC Davis Cancer Center

Aluminium-Containing Antiperspirants Do Not Cause Adverse Skin Reactions During Radiation Therapy: Presented at ASTRO

By Ed Susman

SAN DIEGO -- November 4, 2010 -- Women who undergo radiation therapy for breast cancer probably can belay fears that use of aluminium-containing antiperspirants will cause skin reactions or that the aluminium will increase the amount of radiation women receive.

The research was presented here on November 1 at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

The research team enrolled 198 women who were planning on receiving radiotherapy and told half the women to use the antiperspirants which often contain aluminium compounds and told the other half of the women to use standard care (wash only).

The researchers wanted to test whether use of these products were responsible for anecdotal concerns that the metallic content of the products produced greater erythema that non-use of the products. But what they found was no difference between the women who used the products and those that did not.

There was no increase in the intensity of the transient sunburn-like skin reactions that most people experience during radiation treatment among women using antiperspirants.

source: Doctors Guide

Varian Medical Systems Receives 510(k) Clearance for Acuros® XB Advanced Dose Calculation Algorithm for Planning Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 1 , 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ASTRO Booth # 201 -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) has received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Acuros® XB advanced dose calculation algorithm which can complete a RapidArc® treatment plan two to three times faster than conventional planning algorithms. Varian has incorporated the Acuros algorithm for external beam radiotherapy treatment planning into its market-leading Eclipse™ treatment planning system on exhibit at the 52nd annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego October 31 - November 4.

The Acuros dose calculation algorithm is designed for planning complex cases quickly and easily. It is particularly beneficial for planning sophisticated treatments in areas like the lungs or sinuses, where tissue density varies. It is also ideal for planning treatments that require many beam angles, including RapidArc radiotherapy and radiosurgery, which deliver beams continually from all angles as the treatment machine rotates around the patient.

source: Varian

Varian Medical Systems and IMRIS to Co-Develop Revolutionary New MR-Guided Radiation Therapy System

PALO ALTO, Calif. and WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE: VAR) ("Varian") and IMRIS Inc. (TSX: IM) ("IMRIS") have concluded an agreement to co-develop an innovative new MR-guided radiation therapy system for use in treating a variety of cancers.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will develop a solution that combines IMRIS's proprietary MR imaging technology with Varian's recently introduced TrueBeam™ system, to enable the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during radiotherapy treatments for cancer. Launched in April 2010, Varian's TrueBeam system for radiotherapy and radiosurgery offers unprecedented speed and accuracy and has the ability to deliver treatments up to 50 per cent faster, with a dose delivery rate of up to double the maximum of earlier, industry-leading Varian systems.

MR is the gold standard for soft tissue imaging. By leveraging IMRIS's proprietary technology and integrating the exquisite detail of MR imaging with the extensive treatment delivery capabilities of the TrueBeam system, the two companies expect to enhance the effectiveness of radiation therapy.

"We are seeking to augment physicians' ability to target cancerous tissue very precisely, even in areas of the body that are difficult to image," said Dow Wilson, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "Many studies have shown that increased treatment accuracy can reduce the impact on healthy tissues around a targeted tumor."

source: PR Newswire

Calypso Medical Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for Dynamic Edge Gating Technology

SEATTLE—Oct. 7, 2010—Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc., a developer of real-time localization technology used for the precise tracking of tumors, today announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the Calypso® System with Dynamic Edge(tm) Gating Technology. This latest innovation of the Calypso System automates the response to organ motion that occurs during the delivery of radiation to prostate cancer tumors in order to protect healthy tissue from unintended radiation. As a result, this technology may enable a further decrease in the side effects associated with prostate radiotherapy, such as bowel and bladder incontinence and sexual dysfunction.

The Calypso System, with its GPS for the Body® technology, utilizes miniature implanted Beacon® transponders to provide precise, continuous information on the location of the tumor during external beam radiation therapy. The real-time position information provided by the Calypso System allows physicians to deliver maximum radiation directly to the tumor while sparing the surrounding healthy tissues and organs from exposure. The new gating technology allows therapists to set motion thresholds which automatically signal radiation delivery to be stopped each time the targeted tissue moves outside the preset threshold. Previously the Calypso System, which provides target position information in the form of objective data, relied upon the therapist to manually intervene and halt radiation delivery when healthy tissue was in danger of receiving unintended radiation.

source: Calypso Medical

Elekta Launches ABAS 2.0 Autosegmentation Software Used to Plan Radiation Therapy in Patients with Cancer

GPU calculations increase contouring speed by as much as 50 percent

Elekta recently launched ABAS (Atlas-based Autosegmentation) 2.0 software, which includes the Simultaneous Truth and Performance Level Estimation (STAPLE) algorithm to increase contouring accuracy. ABAS—considered the industry gold standard for autosegmentation accuracy—deforms atlases of anatomy previously defined on a reference image onto a new patient image, creating a new structure set fit to the patient anatomy and enhancing planning efficiency.

“The STAPLE algorithm allows multiple atlases to be calculated against a single patient,” says Randy Larson, ABAS product manager. “The benefit is increased accuracy because the user is achieving the best result for each contour based on multiple sources. ABAS 2.0 also uses a graphics processor unit [GPU], which increases contouring speed by up to 50 percent. In addition, this release includes an improved user interface featuring new tools and functionality, as well as full DICOM service, to enhance workflow and file maintenance.”

With its deformable registration algorithms, ABAS saves physician and dosimetrist time by automatically contouring new image sets based on anatomy defined in the atlas. Users may further edit and refine the new image sets.

source: Elekta

Varian Medical Systems Spotlights TrueBeam Treatment System for First Time in Europe at ESTRO 2010, September 12-16, Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain, Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) is spotlighting its new TrueBeam™ medical linear accelerator for fast, powerful and efficient cancer treatments at the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology exhibition in Barcelona next week. A fully-featured TrueBeam system will be the centerpiece of Varian's booth at the annual ESTRO meeting (Booth No. 320).

TrueBeam uses a multitude of technical innovations to dynamically synchronize imaging, patient positioning, motion management, and treatment delivery. Designed to be a best-in-class and versatile platform, TrueBeam can be used for all forms of advanced external-beam radiotherapy including image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery (IGRT and IGRS), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and RapidArc® radiotherapy. The product line includes TrueBeam STx, specially configured for advanced radiosurgery.

With its high intensity mode, TrueBeam can deliver doses at up to 2400 MU/min, more than twice as fast as any other machine for either radiotherapy or radiosurgery. Planning of such rapid treatments is fully supported in the latest version of Varian's Eclipse™ treatment planning system that will also be demonstrated on the Varian booth.

source: Varian Medical Systems

Benefits of TomoTherapy(R) Radiation Therapy Highlighted in 82 Studies to Be Presented at ESTRO 29 in Barcelona

MADISON, WS, Sep 08, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- TomoTherapy Incorporated /quotes/comstock/15*!tomo/quotes/nls/tomo (TOMO 3.11, +0.02, +0.68%) , maker of advanced radiation therapy solutions for cancer care, today announced that 82 studies examining the use of the TomoTherapy(R) treatment system to treat common, complex and rare tumors throughout the body will be showcased at ESTRO 29, September 12-16, 2010, in Barcelona. The studies examine use of the TomoTherapy system on head and neck, prostate, breast and lung tumors, as well as for treating blood cancers, mesothelioma and pediatric patients.

In one of the most promising papers, researchers from San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy compared TomoTherapy to other radiation therapy solutions using Pareto front analysis to explore the ability of these treatment methods to improve target coverage without sacrificing organs at risk (OAR) or other constraints. Researchers reported that "for all simulations RapidArc(R) met less of the optimization criteria, while TomoTherapy was able to produce the most homogeneous dose and have the capability to conform dose distributions better than RapidArc(R)."

Head and Neck Cancers Among the numerous studies on head and neck tumors, two studies compare arc therapy to helical TomoTherapy radiation delivery. Exploring the treatment of patients with oropharyngeal cancer, researchers in Belgium and the Netherlands concluded that in the treatment of head and neck cancer, helical TomoTherapy treatment times are less than both Smart Arc and step and shoot techniques. In fact, TomoTherapy treatment was fastest of all techniques examined, at 6.6 minutes, compared to 7.5 minutes for Smart Arc and longer times for other intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) techniques, while delivering the best homogeneity and equivalent or better OAR sparing.

source: Marketwatch

New Model May Simplify High-Dose Radiosurgery Planning

COLUMBUS, Ohio – There is yet no straightforward way to determine the optimal dose level and treatment schedules for high-dose radiation therapies such as stereotactic radiation therapy, which is used to treat brain and lung cancer, or for high-dose brachytherapy for prostate and other cancers.

Radiation oncologists at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) may have solved the problem by developing a new mathematical model that encompasses all dose levels.

Typically, radiation therapy for cancer is given in daily, low doses spread over many weeks. Oncologists often calculate the schedules for these fractionated, low-dose treatment courses using a mathematical model called the linear-quadratic (LQ) Model. The same calculation model is used to evaluate radiation response, interpret clinical data and guide clinical trials.

“Unfortunately the LQ Model doesn’t work well for high-dose radiation therapy,” says co-author Dr. Nina Mayr, professor of radiation oncology at the OSUCCC-James. “Our study resolves this problem by modifying the current method to develop the Generalized LQ (gLQ) Model that covers all dose levels and schedules.”

If verified clinically, the Generalized gLQ Model could guide the planning of dose and schedules needed for the newer radiosurgery and stereotactic radiation therapy and high-dose brachytherapy procedures that are increasingly used for cancer patients, she says.

source: Ohio State University Medical Center