RADIOSURGERY SYSTEM FOR EXTRACRANIAL TUMORS CHAMPIONED

Extracranial tumor treatment now represents more than 50 percent of all procedures performed with Accuray's CyberKnife System in the U.S., with the treatment of lung tumors outpacing all other tumor treatments in the body, the manufacturer Accuray announced. Since the July 2004 introduction of the Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System, lung tumor treatments have increased threefold annually.

The CyberKnife System is a radiosurgery system that utilizes intelligent robotics to treat tumors anywhere in the body. The CyberKnife System treats patients in single or staged sessions by delivering multiple beams of precisely directed radiation that converge upon the tumor while minimizing injury to surrounding healthy tissue. Image guidance and computer controlled robotics combine to continuously track, detect and correct for tumor and patient movements throughout the treatment with sub-millimeter accuracy.

Synchrony allows patients to breathe normally throughout their treatment without uncomfortable breath-holding or radiation beam gating techniques so clinicians can track, detect and correct for tumor and patient movement throughout the treatment minimizing damage to healthy tissue or critical structures. The introduction of the Synchrony System, a respiratory tracking system unique to the CyberKnife, has contributed to the surge in CyberKnife System adoption for the treatment of tumors in the lung and other parts of the anatomy that move with respiration. ()a href="http://www.fdanews.com/ddl" target=_blank>