NEW TREATMENT WITH LEKSELL GAMMA KNIFE PERFEXION INTRODUCED IN JAPAN

Press Release
Stockholm, Sweden, February 26, 2009

Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™, Elekta's new system for stereotactic radiosurgery, has been used for the first time to treat patients at the Jiro Suzuki Memorial Gamma House, Furukawa Seiryo Hospital, in Miyagi, Japan.

The 100-bed hospital has a strong neurosurgery program, and is the first in Japan to offer treatment with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, an advanced radiosurgery treatment system for intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery or Gamma Knife® surgery.

“We are pleased to be able to offer our patients the benefits of treatment with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion," says Dr. Hidefumi Jokura, Vice President of Furukawa Seiryo and director of the hospital's Gamma Knife Center. "The sophistication of the technology is allowing us to treat more patients in less time. And importantly, both staff and patients appreciate the greater efficiency of the design, which results in reduced hospital visitation for the patient."

Dr. Hidefumi Jokura and his colleague, Dr. Kawagishi, reported that they treated 107 cases, 60 percent of them were brain metastases, during the two first months. “With Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, we now have the capability to treat 3-4 patients in just half a day – a process that normally would have taken a full working day,” says Jokura.

Leksell Gamma Knife is in daily use in over fifty centers in Japan and Furukawa Seiryo hospital currently utilizes Gamma Knife surgery to treat around 500 patients each year.

"With Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion, we are further realizing our ambition of offering effective treatments for a wide range of neurological challenges; and are achieving this with a greater degree of positive outcomes and shorter patient treatment times than before," says Hideo Watanabe, Managing Director, Elekta Japan.