THE LONDON GAMMA KNIFE CENTRE TO INSTALL LEKSELL GAMMA KNIFE PERFEXION – MORE PATIENTS TO BENEFIT FROM RADIOSURGERY

PRESS RELEASE
Stockholm, Sweden, February 9, 2007

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The London Gamma Knife Centre, which runs in partnership with Barts and The London NHS Trust, has decided to invest in the latest and most advanced radiosurgery equipment. To be installed in the spring of 2007, Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™ from Elekta will enhance the center’s capability for performing non-invasive radiosurgery in the brain, head/neck and cervical spine.

The London Gamma Knife Centre and Bart’s and The London NHS Trust provide radiosurgical service for patients from all over the UK and overseas. The center’s close relationship with the NHS and its consultants ensures patients with malignant or benign brain tumors and other brain disorders to receive quality care in an understanding environment. Located in Harley Street, The London Gamma Knife Centre is owned by HCA International, London’s leading private hospital group.

Gamma Knife® surgery, also known as stereotactic radiosurgery, is a method for treating tumors and other brain disorders with ultrahigh precision, focused radiation, in many cases eliminating the need for invasive procedures. Contrary to invasive brain surgery, requiring many days of aftercare in the hospital, the patient normally leaves the hospital the same day and can return to normal life on the following day.

The London Gamma Knife Centre and Barts and The London NHS Trust have been providing a radiosurgery service since 1999 and have now decided to invest in the most recent technology from Elekta, a Swedish company and the world-leader in radiosurgery systems.

“At The London Gamma Knife Centre we work closely with Barts and The London NHS Trust to provide patients with the most advanced, clinically proven treatment options available,” said Neil Buckley, CEO of The London Gamma Knife Centre. “Following discussions with our clinicians and having seen the system perform at the pilot installation in Marseille, France, we became convinced that Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion will be of great benefit to our patients here in London. We are proud to be among the first centers in the world to take this innovative technology to clinical practice and we are excited about the possibility to expand the use of Gamma Knife surgery beyond its current scope.”

Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion has been developed by Elekta in close collaboration with leading neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists and physicists from Europe and the US. Compared to the classic model, Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion allows for a dramatically increased treatable volume. Subsequently, this new system is estimated to increase the number of patients that can benefit from Gamma Knife surgery by 40 percent. The fully automated and efficient single push button approach is expected to save 3-5 working weeks of physician time per year at an average Gamma Knife center.

This technological breakthrough incorporates a completely new and optimized design that will improve and expand Gamma Knife surgery while maintaining full clinical compatibility with Gamma Knife procedures and protocols based on over 400,000 treated patients. Designed from the ground up with patient and staff comfort in mind, the body dose to patient is up to 100 times less with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion compared with competing technologies, important not least for pediatric treatments and treatment of women of childbearing age. The patented collimator design provides the neurosurgeon or radiation oncologist with almost unlimited ability for sculpting the dose to produce complex dose distributions with incomparable accuracy.

“Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion is a quantum leap in the field of radiosurgery and an important milestone both for Elekta and the neurosurgical community. As a result, many more patients than before will now be able to benefit from Gamma Knife surgery instead of more risky and invasive procedures and we are proud to partner with The London Gamma Knife Centre in this quest”, commented Olof Sandén, Vice President and head of Elekta’s market region Europe.


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