Seattle and Atlanta, July 30,
2008
A patient with pancreatic cancer recently became the first person
in the United States to receive treatment using Elekta VMAT
(Volumetric intensity Modulated Arc Therapy) at Seattle's
Swedish Cancer Institute. This revolutionary new technology
dramatically decreases treatment times -- delivering a higher
dose to the tumor target without compromising coverage and
patient safety.
From the patient's perspective, faster treatment times often
mean improved comfort, which makes it easier to remain still
during treatment and increases the likelihood of delivering
radiation beams more accurately and safely. From the physician's
perspective, the reduction in treatment time makes it much
easier to accurately target the tumor and the improved dose
sparing offers new options to either increase the cancer-killing
dose to a tumor or reduce side effects and therefore potentially
improve outcomes.
David Shepard, director of Medical Physics at Swedish Cancer
Institute, says, "The use of Elekta VMAT allowed us to reduce
our patient's delivery time by half, relative to a conventional
IMRT delivery. The total treatment time was less than 10
minutes, including Cone Beam CT image guidance. More
importantly, we were able to reduce the dose to surrounding
sensitive structures such as the spinal cord, left and right
kidneys and the liver."
Shepard is presenting his work on VMAT at the Elekta VMAT
Consortium meeting during the 2008 American Association of
Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) annual meeting along with other
U.S. and international hospitals who have either started or plan
to start a VMAT clinical program.
Vivek Mehta, M.D., director of the Center for Advanced Targeted
Radiation Therapies at the Swedish Cancer Institute, emphasizes,
"VMAT technology will enable us to design treatment approaches
that are more aggressive in killing cancer cells and have fewer
side effects."
Dr. Mehta says the implementation of Elekta VMAT at Swedish
Cancer Institute has advanced the program's overall mission. "By
introducing VMAT technology today, we have continued to build on
the Swedish Cancer Institute's rich tradition of innovation in
cancer care. We were among the first to begin using Image Guided
Radiation Therapy (IGRT) utilizing cone Beam CT technology to
improve setup accuracy and treatment precision, and now we've
begun treating with VMAT. As the largest and most comprehensive
cancer treatment program in the Pacific Northwest, improving
patient care is our mission and we work daily to make that a
reality."
About Elekta VMAT
The speed and precision of Elekta VMAT is made possible by the
simultaneous manipulation of the gantry position and speed, the
multileaf collimator leaves, the dose rate and the collimator
angle, all while the radiation beam is on. In addition, Elekta
VMAT allows the flexibility of one arc, two arcs, sub-arc or a
combination.
To ensure the accuracy of this highly conformal treatment,
Elekta VMAT uses daily ultra low dose 3D volumetric imaging via
Elekta VolumeView(TM). VolumeView imaging is accomplished in
under two minutes, complementing the speed of treatments. For
additional information, visit
http://www.elekta.com/vmat.
About Elekta
Elekta
is an international medical technology group, providing
oncologists, radiation therapists, neurosurgeons and many other
medical specialists with state-of-the-art tools to fight serious
disease.
Elekta provides advanced clinical solutions, comprehensive
management and information systems, as well as services for
improved cancer care and management of brain disorders.
Elekta's systems and solutions are used in over 5,000 hospitals
around the world. Clinical and information management solutions
include, among others, Leksell Gamma Knife(R) for non-invasive
treatment of brain disorders, Elekta Axesse(TM) and Elekta
Synergy(R) for stereotactic and image guided radiation therapy
and radiosurgery, and the MOSAIQ(R) suite of software for image
enabled EMR and efficient management of clinical and patient
data.
With around 2,500 employees globally, the corporate headquarters
are located in Stockholm, Sweden and the company is listed on
the Nordic Exchange under the ticker EKTAb.
http://www.elekta.com
About the Swedish Cancer Institute
The Swedish Cancer Institute (SCI) opened in 1932 as the first
dedicated cancer-care center west of the Mississippi. Now in its
75th year, it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer
treatment program in the Pacific Northwest. A true
multidisciplinary program, SCI offers a wide range of advanced
cancer-treatment options in chemotherapy, radiation therapy and
surgery -- backed by extensive diagnostic capabilities, patient
education and support-group services. SCI's clinical-research
arm encompasses
industry-sponsored and cooperative group therapeutic trials,
cancer screening and prevention trials, and
investigator-initiated trials. Breast-cancer screening and
diagnostics are available through the Swedish Breast Care
Centers and mobile mammography units. For more information,
visit
http://www.swedish.org.
About the Center for Advanced Targeted
Radiation Therapies
The Swedish Cancer Institute's Center for Advanced Targeted
Radiation Therapies encompasses the comprehensive and
complimentary array of advanced and emerging radiation delivery
tools available to patients for both approved therapies and
clinical research efforts. They include a variety of
technologies, including Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy
(IMRT),
Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), linear accelerator-based
stereotactic radio surgery, Calypso(R) 4D Localization System,
Xoft Axxent(TM) Electronic Brachytherapy System, MammoSite(R)
Radiation Therapy System, the Seattle CyberKnife Center(TM) at
Swedish Medical Center, and Northwest Hospital Gamma Knife
Center. SCI is also working toward adding the latest generation
of proton beam radiotherapy systems to this arsenal of
cancer-fighting tools by December 2010. |
