SUNNYVALE, Calif., Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that Georgetown University Hospital's second CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System has arrived at its Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C. The system is expected to begin treating patients in July 2007. Georgetown is one of many centers with a second CyberKnife System installed or pending installation in the coming months to meet the growing demand for radiosurgery.
With patient interest in CyberKnife radiosurgery flourishing and physician referrals growing, the addition of a second system at Georgetown is representative of a trend toward multiple systems at active CyberKnife centers worldwide.-- Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Md. is awaiting the installation of a second CyberKnife System, which it secured through Accuray's shared ownership program. The shared ownership program allows centers to build a financial plan with minimum monthly payment schedules and revenue sharing that is tailored to their specific needs. The program also assists with business development, operational and reimbursement support. Sinai Hospital is the first center to enter into a shared ownership program that includes more than one CyberKnife System. As with Georgetown University, the business case was based on the patient demand and business success of the first unit.
-- Stanford University Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. saw the number of patient treatments increase following installation of their CyberKnife System in October 2001, justifying their recent installation of a second system in September 2006. The first CyberKnife System is now focused predominantly on treating tumors in the brain and spinal cord, while the second system, housed within the Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, has focused on pediatric patients and tumors elsewhere in the body.
In 2002 Georgetown University Hospital added the CyberKnife System as part of its strategic plan, enabling the hospital to provide state-of-the-art treatment for its patients. Georgetown has treated more than 1,200 patients with the CyberKnife System. Now the hospital is installing a second system to satisfy the continually growing demand.
"The CyberKnife System treats patients that no other system can -- such as our thoracic cases, which we treat with the Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System," said Linda Winger, vice president for professional services and research administration at Georgetown University Hospital. "We needed additional capacity to meet the increasing demand for radiosurgery, especially to treat patients with extracranial diseases. With the flexibility of the CyberKnife System, we've gained significant experience in treating spine, lung, liver, pancreas and prostate cancers."
The CyberKnife System is unique in its ability to non-invasively treat tumors anywhere in the body with surgical precision on an outpatient basis. With a CyberKnife System, hospitals gain a competitive advantage because they are now able to treat a wider array of patients, including those who were previously considered inoperable due to old age or a medical condition, those who have surgically complex tumors or those who seek an alternative to surgery.
Advertisement
"The ability for hospitals to treat more patients, establish a stronger referral network and benefit financially is evidence that the investment in a versatile technology, such as the CyberKnife System, is a wise one," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Accuray. "The fact that multiple centers have purchased a second system demonstrates the breadth of the radiosurgery market and we believe, based on this increase in demand, that more hospitals will follow suit."
Advertisement
The CyberKnife System represents the next generation of radiosurgery systems, combining continual image-guidance technology with a compact linear accelerator that has the flexibility to move in three dimensions according to the treatment plan. This combination, which is referred to as intelligent robotics, extends the benefits of radiosurgery to the treatment of tumors anywhere in the body. The CyberKnife System autonomously tracks, detects and corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time during the procedure, enabling delivery of precise, high dose radiation typically with sub-millimeter accuracy.
About Accuray
Accuray Incorporated, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a global leader in the field of radiosurgery. Its CyberKnife System is the world's first and only commercially available intelligent robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body, typically with sub- millimeter accuracy. To date, it is estimated that the CyberKnife System has treated more than 30,000 patients worldwide.
Source: PR Newswire
LIN/C
