ELEKTA VMAT 510(k) CLEARANCE WELCOMED BY US RADIATION ONCOLOGISTS
Stockholm, Sweden, June 16, 2008
Elekta has received FDA 510(k) clearances for its groundbreaking Elekta VMAT solution, allowing US cancer specialists to both plan and deliver radiation using a technique which has the potential to revolutionize the practice of radiation oncology. This news has been eagerly anticipated by US cancer clinics as it offers both significant benefits to their patients and the opportunity to increase patient volumes.
From the patient's perspective, Elekta VMAT (Volumentric intensty Modulated Arc Therapy) combines a significant reduction in treatment time with optimal avoidance of radiation dose to healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. From the doctor'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 is uniquely positioned to introduce the VMAT technique by virtue of Elekta Synergy®, the only fully digital linear accelerator with integrated high-resolution 3D X-ray Volume Imaging (XVI). With daily pre-treatment imaging scans, clinicians who implement Elekta VMAT will be able to maximize accuracy and shrink treatment margins, while minimizing the possibility of damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
“Over ten years of research in collaboration with members of the Elekta IMRT Consortium has lead to this unique series of innovations”, explains Tomas Puusepp, President & CEO of Elekta. “Having the worlds only fully digital accelerator is a key element in making this level of automation and control complexity possible in a way that allows clinicians to deliver advanced treatments with a single push of a button. Interest from clinicians in this technology is very high and we believe that VMAT will be the next major technology shift following the introduction of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) around the millennium and the subsequent introduction of image guided radiation therapy (IGRT)”, Tomas Puusepp concludes.
For more information on Elekta VMAT, please see www.elekta.com/VMAT.