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Elekta
For almost five decades, Elekta has been a leader in precision radiation medicine. Our nearly 4,000 employees worldwide are committed to ensuring everyone in the world with cancer has access to – and benefits from – more precise, personalized radiotherapy treatments. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Elekta is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm Exchange. Visit elekta.com or follow @Elekta on Twitter.
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Elekta unveiled a state-of-the-art learning center at its North American headquarters, in conjunction with the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), which was held in Atlanta.
Since opening in September 2011, the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center has become a premier regional center for cancer patients in the greater Phoenix area. With some of the latest state-of-the-art technology in place, the Gilbert, Ariz., facility prides itself on offering patients the same level of care that they would receive at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “The philosophy is to treat patients with the same protocols and philosophy that they would get as if they went to Houston,” said Stephen Sapareto, Ph.D., DABR, director of medical physics, division of radiation oncology, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Elekta has introduced Monaco 5.0, which consolidates support for clinically useful delivery techniques in a single treatment planning system, and features refinements to planning speed and precision.
On September 4, Kettering Medical Center (Kettering, Ohio) became the first clinic in North America to use Elekta's Versa HD system to treat a patient, a 71-year-old woman with medically inoperable lung cancer.
Integrated with Versa HD linear accelerator, Elekta has introduced new intra-fraction imaging capabilities within its X-ray Volume Imaging (XVI) system. During treatment, XVI now provides the tools to monitor and manage internal motion, supporting the clinician's efforts to increase therapeutic doses delivered to the tumor while reducing healthy tissue exposure.
The variety of radiation therapy options continues to grow with the development of treatment planning software, imaging systems for guidance, linear accelerators and more. The external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) market includes many different types of treatment, from traditional whole-body irradiation (WBI) to conformal radiation therapy (3-D CRT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Despite a major decline in 2009, the U.S. radiation therapy market is bouncing back, according to a study published in July by IMV Medical Information Division.[1] Improvements in technologies are helping to drive activity as clinics and hospitals implement advanced techniques to more accurately target and treat cancers.
In the past 20 years there have been considerable improvements in the treatment of prostate cancer. As it is across all radiation oncology, techniques have evolved from conventional external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), to more targeted therapies that are delivered in fewer visits. One of the latest notable trends in radiotherapy is the emergence of real-time image guidance for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). For prostate cancer, radiotherapy is often deployed in conjunction with surgery (prostatectomy) or as curative therapy, depending on the stage of disease. As these new techniques emerge, it becomes more important for clinicians to identify which ones work most effectively and for which patients.
Users of linear accelerator, Versa HD, can now bring target immobilization to new levels through automated gating with Active Breathing Coordinator. For anatomies affected by respiratory motion, such as lung, liver and breast, Active Breathing Coordinator provides non-invasive, internal immobilization of the target, triggering radiation delivery when anatomy is immobilized.
With a score of 93.1 out of 100, Elekta's Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion system earned the top ranking, receiving high marks for uptime, treatment times and planning speeds, according to KLAS research firm's recently released customer survey, Radiation Therapy 2013: Striving for Accuracy and Upgradeability.
July 22, 2013 — Elekta has received CE marking for its Clarity 4-D monitoring system, permitting European clinics to implement this new way of reducing the uncertainty caused by prostate motion during radiation treatment.