Elekta
Thought Leaders in Radiation Medicine Convene to Discuss Safety and Advancements in Cancer Treatment
Advancements in radiation treatment technology, safety protocols and workflow improvements were key topics discussed during the recent Future of Radiation Medicine: 2012 Clinical Leadership Symposium, sponsored by Elekta, a company pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. During the symposium, clinical experts presented data and participated in discussions on how advancements are helping clinicians safely and more accurately treat individuals with lung, prostate and pancreatic cancers.
The event, held on March 15, 2012 in Baltimore, included a panel discussion on advances in safety process evaluation and workflow improvements featuring clinical experts from Johns Hopkins University, North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. During their presentations the speakers highlighted critical findings and outcomes from programs enacted at their institutions.
In her presentation, Stephanie Terezakis, M.D., Department of Radiation Oncology at Johns Hopkins University, emphasized that simple steps – such as checklists and electronic incident reporting systems – can be easily implemented, making a national registry of incidents and near-misses a reality.
Advancements in hypofractionation also were a topic of discussion during the symposium, including a detailed discussion of treatment methods for locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Data comparing conventional radiation therapy and fractionated stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) were reviewed.
Joseph Herman, M.D., MSc, Department of Radiation Oncology at Johns Hopkins University presented preliminary data which support the use of fractionated SBRT in well selected patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. His analysis of the data concluded that fractionated SBRT appears safe with less acute toxicity than conventional radiation therapy.
Marc Posner, M.D., of the Center for Advanced Radiation Medicine at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, discussed real-time tracking for treating prostate cancer using non-ionizing soft tissue visualization. He highlighted the potential of transperineal ultrasound* with Elekta’s Clarity™ system, and explained the advantages such a motion management strategy could provide over other imaging modalities, such as MR, CT, kV and MV imaging in hypofractionated prostate treatments.
“Clinical set-up will be easy – anyone can learn how to do this,” he said. “In tests of the approach, all the patients have accepted it, the therapists love it and image quality is excellent. I actually spend less time in the simulator now, because the ultrasound helps with prostate definition, I don’t have to perform the urethrogram and my patients don’t have to have rectal enemas. There is also the potential clinical benefit, enabling a small community center such as ours to move into the 21st century and start performing hypofractionation.”
A full synopsis of the symposium will be available on the Elekta website in the coming months.
*Work in progress.
In March, Dr. Vivian Cosgrove, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, gave a presentation on the new Agility™* MLC from Elekta. He discussed research that has been carried out by his team and how that transfers to clinical benefits.
To view a recording of the 45-minute webinar hosted by Medical Physics Web, visit: http://tinyurl.com/6mgm5j2.
*Agility is not available for sale or distribution in all markets. Please contact the local Elekta representative for details.
Introducing Agility™, the next generation, high-resolution beam shaping solution from Elekta.
Learn more at www.elekta.com/agility.
*Agility is not available for sale or distribution in all markets. Please contact the local Elekta representative for details.
Last week during the 24th International Medical Instruments & Equipment (ChinaMed) Exhibition, at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, Elekta showcased its comprehensive range of oncology solutions. Here are a few photos from the Elekta booth.
“During 2010-2011, Elekta solutions accounted for nearly half of new orders in the Chinese market, making Elekta the number one provider in the country,” says Gilbert Wai, Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific. “Our ongoing mission is to help meet China’s demand for comprehensive cancer management solutions as this nation’s healthcare providers strive to offer the best services for its citizens.”
Elekta’s comprehensive radiation therapy solutions also will be on display (booth #H1-E36) at the Spring 2012 China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF), April 17-20 at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre in Shenzhen.
For more information on Elekta China, visit www.elekta.cn.
An estimated 300 participants from 12 countries, including neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists and other healthcare providers will gather March 26-29, in Sydney, Australia for Elekta’s 16th International Leksell Gamma Knife Society Meeting. A dominant subject among the 275 oral and poster presentations in the scientific program will be Gamma Knife® radiosurgery of brain metastases and movement disorders, in addition to the latest results from multi-center trials.
“The theme is ‘Boundless Horizons,’ which challenges our limits and makes us look forward to possibilities, reflecting the expanding use of Gamma Knife and the yet to be imagined potential of this form of surgery,” says Prof. Michael K. Morgan, M.D., Dean, at Sydney’s Macquarie University Hospital (MUH), which is hosting the event at the city’s Hilton Hotel. “The focus on cancer at the meeting reflects the importance of Gamma Knife in the treatment of this disease, however, the program comprehensively covers all aspects of innovation in Gamma Knife surgery for brain disorders.
MUH acquired the continent’s first Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™, in 2010, and is the first and only center in Australia to provide dedicated intracranial radiosurgery. The technological capabilities of Gamma Knife are in high demand in Australia, as an estimated 1,400 new cases of malignant brain tumors – and many more benign tumors – are diagnosed annually. More than 1,200 Australians die each year from malignant and benign brain tumors.*
*”Statistics on Incidence, Survival Rates and Mortality Associated with Brain Tumours in Australia,” Information Paper for the Australian Brain Tumour Advocacy Group, Denise Chang, June 2003.
Following an evaluation process lasting several days, a 30-member international panel selected Elekta’s Connexion™ couchtop to receive the red dot award: product design 2012 for its impressive design in the product category “Life Science and Medicine,” according to the panel. Creative designers and manufacturers from around the world submitted 4,515 designs to this renowned product competition.
The awarding of the internationally recognized quality label occurs on July 2, 2012, as part of the traditional red dot gala. An estimated 1,000 international guests from design, business, politics and the media will gather at the Essen Aalto-Theatre to celebrate the culmination of this year’s competition. Connexion will then be exhibited for four weeks at the red dot design museum.
With a growing range of imaging and treatment techniques available, couchtops in radiation therapy need to be able to support different approaches without compromising patient set-up. With its unique modular design, Connexion removes the restrictions of a single couchtop, allowing the adaptation of the couch to each patient‘s needs. Building on Elekta’s choice in patient positioning solutions, Connexion offers clinics the flexibility to select the most appropriate couchtop providing personalized efficiency, and strengthening the ability to optimize treatment outcomes.
For further information please visit: www.red-dot.de/press and www.elekta.com/connexion.
*Connexion is not available for sale or distribution in all markets. Please contact your local Elekta representative for details.
Customers rely on planning systems’ exceptional connectivity to department’s technology to improve QA, training and workflow
According to clinicians at many cancer centers, it is difficult to overestimate the value of Elekta’s vendor neutral planning solutions for the smooth operation of the radiation therapy department. By implementing a single treatment planning system (TPS) across the entire department, clinics are realizing greater efficiencies in workflow, quality assurance and training.
“We support many different treatment modalities in this clinic, in addition to five different planning systems plus CT simulation,” says Charles W. Kinsey, Chief Physicist, Presbyterian Hospital, (Charlotte, N.C.) “This puts a tremendous burden on the planners who have to know how to generate high quality plans for the different systems and for those responsible for treatment planning QA for all of these systems. Implementing Elekta’s XiO TPS for two of our treatment systems, a Varian and an Elekta, has been a huge improvement.”
“The efficiency inherent in a vendor neutral TPS platform gives us more time to develop a high quality plan independent of the treatment platform,” he continues. “Also, a vendor neutral TPS will have more robust beam modeling tools. This allows the estimate of how we are going to treat the patient to more closely reflect how we will actually treat the patient.”
Bon Secours Cancer Institute (Midlothian, Va.) operates three non-Elekta linear accelerators at three clinics, but chose an Elekta treatment planning system to develop plans at each site.
“We chose the Elekta TPS solution because we wanted the option to more easily expand our existing system, and we predicted that over the long term our operational costs would be lower,” says Teresa Crist, R.T.T., Director of Radiation Oncology at Bon Secours. “The fact that it is vendor neutral enables us to optimize the use of our existing linac hardware to deliver advanced techniques and imaging options.”
Read more about Elekta’s vendor neutral treatment planning solutions in the February 2012 issue of Wavelength customer magazine.
University Hospital Galway
Soft tissue imaging with 3D ultrasound both at therapy simulation and just before treatment has transformed prostate radiotherapy at University Hospital Galway (UHG). The majority of radiotherapy patients with prostate cancer who visit the clinic will benefit from a new technology that can accurately track the prostate’s position before each treatment. The Elekta Clarity® 3D system provides ultrasound-assisted image guidance to radiation therapy (IGRT), and avoids the additional radiation dose that comes with other IGRT techniques
“The big advantage of Clarity is you’re not adding any radiation dose – you’re getting pictures of the prostate for ‘free,’” says Margaret Moore, UHG’s Head of Radiation Physics. “For planning treatments, CT simulation and Clarity are a great combination. Both modalities add their bit of intelligence to create the certainty that you’re seeing the target.”
Reliably localizing the prostate is critical as its position can change due to bladder and rectal filling, in addition to patient breathing, she adds.
“If you aim the treatment beams at the same spot every day, but the anatomy you want to treat is moving in and out of the spot, then it’s not getting the full dose it should,” Ms. Moore explains. “Clarity allows us to track the prostate’s position before each treatment, and keep the treatment beam on target.”
“In the equipment evaluation, we liked the idea of matching the planning ultrasound to the treatment room ultrasound that Clarity offered,” Ms. Moore recalls. “Other similar IGRT options try to match ultrasound to CT, which could affect alignment accuracy. Clarity also wouldn’t require reconfiguring our linear accelerator – we could integrate the system easily.”
Read more about how radiation oncologists at UHG have been able to use Clarity routinely to fine-tune prostate contouring at: http://www.elekta.com/press/f91e5298-a19c-4efa-82fc-49d2161efd7f/irish-hospital-uses-elekta-s-clarity-3d-ultrasound-to-guide-prostate-cancer-radiotherapy.html.
(l-r) Holger Wirtz, Technical Director/Medical Physicist, Mari Björnsgard, M.D., Site Management “Satellite Friedrichshafen,” and Prof. Johannes Lutterbach, M.D., M.B.A., Medical Director
A video display on the door of Lake Constance Radiation Oncology Centre (Singen, Germany) includes the message “Let the Sun Shine,” exhorting patients to think positively and have sunny thoughts despite the reason for their visit to this Southern Germany clinic. The message might as well also signify a plea for cloudless skies, as the radiotherapy center’s lights, treatment systems and other machines and systems get a major percentage of their power from the sun.
In August 2011, Lake Constance Radiation Oncology Centre installed an array of 232 solar panel modules on its roof, creating a 400m2 energy collector that converts sunlight into hundreds of kilowatt-hours of electricity daily. During the summer, the array’s output will be more than the Radiation Oncology Centre needs to run its two Elekta Synergy® systems, a large bore CT system and the clinic’s IT technology, lighting and air-conditioning. In the winter months, the clinic will need to supplement its solar power generation with electricity from the power grid, resulting in Lake Constance Radiation Oncology Centre purchasing more electricity than it will produce when averaged over 365 days. However, it is the concept of decentralized power production that is critical, according to Holger Wirtz, the clinic’s Technical Director/Chief of Medical Physics, and brainchild of the solar power project.
Solar panels at Lake Constance Radiation Oncology Centre
“This is a brand new idea. We are shifting the paradigm from centralized to decentralized energy production. We are the first in Germany to follow this model in healthcare and the environment and generate our own energy to drive our ‘industrial processes,’” Mr. Wirtz pronounces. “This decreases the financial investment and effort that utilities expend in creating electricity at a central production point – such as an atomic, coal or hydroelectric plant – and distributing it to every energy consumer. Imagine if every home produced energy from its own solar array independent of the power grid; the current needed to be carried on the grid would be much lower.”
Elekta's Agility MLC
Wednesday, March 21, Dr. Vivian Cosgrove, Head of Radiotherapy Physics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, will give a presentation on the new Agility* MLC from Elekta. He will discuss research that has been carried out by his team and how that transfers to clinical benefits. There will be an opportunity to ask Dr. Cosgrove questions and find out more about this exciting new product. The webinar will run for approximately 45 minutes with time for a Q&A at the conclusion.
For additional details, or register for the webinar hosted by Medical Physics Web, visit: http://tinyurl.com/6mgm5j2.
*Agility is work in progress and not for sale or distribution in all markets.
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