IsoRay Treats First Pediatric Wilms Tumor Patient With Cesium-131 Seeded Mesh
A Charlotte, N.C., physician successfully completed the first pediatric implantation of IsoRay’s Cesium-131 seeded brachytherapy mesh, the Richland, Wash.-based devicemaker said Wednesday.
The device consists of a fine woven mesh made out of Vicryl, with a strand of radioactive titanium seeds about 5 mm in length. The mesh and the seeds are used in resection surgeries, typically in lung or abdominal cancers, when there is the likelihood of recurrence. Placed over the affected area, the device delivers high doses of radiation while minimizing the risk of injury to surrounding healthy tissue, IsoRay said.
The implantable radiation therapy provides a significant benefit over external radiation beams, which cannot provide enough dosing to be truly effective and carry a high risk of injury to surrounding critical structures, said IsoRay spokesman Bill Cavanagh.
Moreover, with a half-life of 9.7 days, Cesium-131 delivers radiation to affected areas in only 33 days, as compared with 200 days for Iodine-125. The device can be deployed using single seed applicators, implantable strands and seed sutured mesh or via several implantable devices.
In North Carolina case, Anthony Crimaldi of the Levine Cancer Institute worked with IsoRay to design a treatment mesh appropriate for the child. The patient’s chest had already been extensively radiated externally, and “once you’ve given all the external radiation you can, there aren’t a lot of options left and you want to be aggressively treating this cancer,” Cavanagh told Device Daily Bulletin.
IsoRay’s Cesium-131 mesh is used to treat multiple types of cancers, including brain cancer, ocular melanoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, gynecologic cancer and head and neck cancers.
It was FDA-cleared in August of 2009 and also has CE marking. — Lena Freund
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