October 10, 2012 — At the opening of the 2012 Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) annual meeting in Chicago, Elekta and Brainlab announced a collaboration that will enable neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists to use Brainlab's iPlan software together with Elekta's Leksell GammaPlan treatment planning for Gamma Knife radiosurgery.
Through the collaboration, clinicians will be given the option to add the functionality of iPlan RT Image to the optimized dosimetry and precision of Leksell GammaPlan treatment planning. iPlan, including multimodality image fusion, contouring, atlas-based auto segmentation, fiber tracking and BOLD fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) analysis, brings additional tools to account for organs-at-risk and other important anatomical and functional structures in the brain.
University of California San Francisco (UCSF) is the first institution to use iPlan pre-planning functionality with Leksell GammaPlan. "We are very excited at the possibility to complement our Gamma Knife radiosurgery treatment planning with advanced software features that have already provided an impact within our surgical environment," said Andrew T. Parsa, M.D., Ph.D., UCSF professor and vice chairman of neurological surgery.
Igor J. Barani, M.D., UCSF clinical research director and vice chair of the department of radiation oncology, adds: "With the iPlan RT data enrichment enabled for GammaPlan, we get additional tools to optimize functional sparing and the best ablative treatment for tumors."
With more than 300 Leksell Gamma Knife systems in clinical use and more than 600,000 patients treated to date, Elekta is the world leader in intracranial radiosurgery, renowned for the precision and ease of use of the treatment planning and delivery system.
"iPlan offers additional options to prepare data for treatment planning in GammaPlan. Many Gamma Knife users are already familiar with iPlan, and may now choose to also use the pre-planning tools in conjunction with Gamma Knife radiosurgery,” comments Asa Hedin, executive vice president of Elekta Neuroscience. “In addition, this collaboration enables neurosurgeons who use Brainlab navigation to interact more easily with Gamma Knife radiosurgery."
For more information: www.elekta.com, www.brainlab.com
