ELEKTA SELECTED TO DELIVER FOUR ADVANCED RADIATION THERAPY SYSTEMS TO IRELAND

IGRT is rapidly gaining clinical acceptance all over the world and Elekta Synergy is now established as the reference system for this more precise and accurate method for radiating cancer tumors. To be installed during 2007, the new Elekta Synergy systems at St Luke’s Hospital will allow clinicians to visualize the target, as well as surrounding anatomy and organs, at the time of treatment as a three dimensional volume, without adversely reducing patient throughput. The result is unmatched clinical confidence in radiation therapy, enabling more aggressive treatment of tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

St Luke’s hospital is the premier academic radiation oncology hospital in Ireland with the largest radiation therapy department in the country. For fifty years, the hospital has played a central role in the development and delivery of cancer services to patients throughout Ireland. In the past seven years, it has been transformed into a modern technologically advanced center of excellence in oncology care, research, education and prevention. Services are now provided to over 5,000 patients and 80,000 attendances annually. Elekta and St Luke’s look forward to developing in partnership, new and innovative treatments which will directly benefit patient care.

“Elekta was chosen as they provided a comprehensive package which met our needs and allowed St Luke’s to move forward by introducing Image Guided Radiation Therapy to Ireland. Our decision was to a large extent based on the fact that 3D X-ray Volume Imaging on Elekta Synergy is now very well established and has been proven clinically at a great number of radiation therapy centers throughout the world”, says Lorcan Birthistle, CEO of St Luke’s Hospital. “At St Luke’s Hospital we are all looking forward to the new systems being installed, systems that will come as a great benefit to our patients”, he concludes.

“Elekta Synergy is an integrated system rather than a accessory and the only system which has been designed for IGRT from the ground up. Customers receive all fully functional low dose imaging modalities with integrated workflow enhancing software tools and protocols, available from day one. Just like their colleagues in other parts of the world, clinicians on Ireland have been impressed by the new options offered by Elekta Synergy and the interest for this unique technology is very strong”, comments Patrick Greally, Elekta’s Business Unit Manager for Ireland.

“Government sponsored investment programs for improved radiation therapy capacity is ongoing in several European countries. The Department of Health and Children and the Health Service Executive in Ireland has initiated a major investment program to increase the capacity and quality of radiation therapy in the country with this initial procurement leading the way, and it is with pride Elekta will be a partner in this process, for the benefit of cancer patients throughout Ireland”, says Olof Sandén, Vice President and Elekta’s Regional Manager for Europe.

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