CLINICIANS IN ODENSE, DENMARK, FIRST IN SCANDINAVIA TO OFFER NEW INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY FROM ELEKTA FOR FASTER AND MORE ACCURATE CANCER TREATMENT

Press Release
Stockholm, Sweden, September 21, 2008

Odense University Hospital in Denmark has become the first Scandinavian cancer centre to choose Elekta VMAT (Volumetric intensity Modulated Arc Therapy) to expand the capabilities of the hospital’s radiation oncology department. The addition of this solution to the range of treatment techniques will provide physicians with the ability to treat cancer tumors with improved precision and accuracy, while at the same time significantly reduce treatment times.

Elekta VMAT has the unique ability to use single or multiple gantry arcs that sweep non-stop over the target isocenter, while simultaneously optimizing gantry speed, multileaf collimator leaves, dose rate and collimator angle. It delivers real-time flexibility in delivering uninterrupted prescriptions, dynamic leakage reduction and the flexibility to perform one or more multiple treatment arcs – the only clinically available VMAT solution able to do so.

From the patient's perspective, Elekta VMAT combines a significant reduction in treatment time with optimal avoidance of radiation dose to healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. From the clinician's perspective, the reduction in treatment time makes it much easier to accurately target the tumor and the improved dose sparing offers new options to either increase dose to tumor or reduce side effects and therefore potentially improve outcomes. For the clinic administrator, reduced treatment times and the opportunity to increase dose and reduce the number of treatment sessions increases the number of patients that can be treated using their existing equipment.

“Elekta VMAT is unique in allowing us to optimize all parameters of treatment delivery in order to maximize dose to the tumor whilst minimizing unwanted radiation to healthy tissue” explains Knud Aage Werenberg, Head Physicist, Odense University Hospital. “An added benefit of this new technology is that it dramatically reduces both treatment times and radiation dose, allowing us to treat more patients and minimize unwanted side effects,” he continues.

Odense University Hospital already provide the world leading image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) with Elekta Synergy®, improving treatment accuracy by allowing physicians to precisely target tumors using 3D pre-treatment imaging. Elekta VMAT will prove the next step towards establishing their reputation as a world class center of excellence.

“We are very happy to see Elekta VMAT being quickly implemented in one of Scandinavia’s leading hospitals,” remarked Olof Sandén, Executive Vice President Region Europe at Elekta. “We are proud of a product development which gives physicians the ability to fully utilize the freedom of the equipment and optimize each of the treatment variables, thereby delivering the treatment which best suits each patients’ needs,” he adds.

Odense University Hospital now joins the many European, American and Asian leading cancer treatment centers that now are using Elekta VMAT to treat patients, several of which have or will present data at this year’s ESTRO and ASTRO annual meetings.