French hospital on track in 2012 to mark 12,000th patient treated, sees dramatic increase in patients with brain metastases

University Hospital La Timone is among the world’s elite centers whose experience in Gamma Knife® radiosurgery spans decades and whose treated patient volume surpasses 10,000. This summer, La Timone, will celebrate its 20th year as a Leksell Gamma Knife user, continuing its progress toward 12,000 patients treated in the world’s first facility to operate two of Elekta’s most sophisticated radiosurgery platform, Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™.

On January 9, clinicians at La Timone treated the first patient on their second Perfexion system. The site of the world’s first Perfexion in 2006, La Timone has been performing Gamma Knife surgery since 1992 and has operated four different versions of Gamma Knife, widely recognized as the gold standard for brain radiosurgery.

With its two Perfexion systems, La Timone will treat as many as 10 patients each day, toward a predicted total exceeding 1,200 patients in 2012, according to Jean Régis, M.D. La Timone neurosurgeon and Gamma Knife program director.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a gentler alternative to traditional brain surgery for illnesses such as metastatic disease, which is cancer that has travelled to the brain from elsewhere in the body. With pinpoint accuracy, the system delivers up to thousands of low-intensity radiation beams to one or more targets in a single session. Perfexion provides even greater speed and ease of use than previous models.

Perfexion streamlines radiosurgery

It was the Perfexion system’s planning speed and ability to streamline radiosurgery – in addition to an ever-increasing workload – that convinced La Timone officials they needed to replace its Gamma Knife 4C with an additional Perfexion, Prof. Régis says.

“As our activities continued to increase we were working longer hours of operation and it was putting a burden on the team,” Prof. Régis says. “With two Perfexion systems running, we end the day much earlier. In addition, the percentage of patients with brain metastases is increasing dramatically – more so than any other indication – and in this group the number of mets per patient also is increasing significantly.”

Read more at: http://www.elekta.com/press/4643d00f-636c-43c8-a0da-cf08e5986b92/radiosurgery-pioneer-university-hospital-la-timone-is-world-s-first-to-acquire-second-leksell-gamma-knife-perfexion.html.