New Leksell Gamma Knife to benefit more patients with brain disease
BARCELONA, April 25, 2015 – With the introduction of Elekta’s new Leksell Gamma Knife® Icon™, the benefits of precision cranial radiosurgery are now available for more patients with a wider variety of tumor types and sizes. This latest generation stereotactic radiosurgery system for the brain, integrates advanced motion management, dose delivery and imaging technologies, significantly increasing the versatility of Gamma Knife radiosurgery. Elekta unveiled Leksell Gamma Knife Icon today at the 3rd ESTRO Forum in Barcelona.
“This is great news for patients,” says Niklas Savander, Elekta President and CEO. “With the new functionality in Leksell Gamma Knife Icon, doctors will have even greater flexibility in how radiosurgery is delivered, in addition to more assurance about the radiation dose and how accurately it’s targeted. This new Leksell Gamma Knife will further strengthen our leading position in radiosurgery and hopefully address some of the more complex brain disorders from which many people suffer.”
Icon provides this increased flexibility by allowing physicians to choose either frame-based or frameless methods to immobilize the patient’s head, in addition to the option to perform the treatment in a single session or multiple sessions (fractions or hypofractionation). The system even enables clinicians to choose the degree of precision needed for each patient’s case – ranging from traditional radiosurgery accuracy to ultra-precise microradiosurgery.
“With Leksell Gamma Knife Icon, we expect two major changes,” says Professor Jean Régis, a neurosurgeon and Gamma Knife program director at University Hospital La Timone (Marseilles, France). “First, the system will increase indications, in the sense that we will be able do more hypofractionation. The second great benefit of Icon is the ability to do true adaptive radiosurgery both interfraction and intrafraction. It has the capacity to detect and measure position changes – to automatically propose dose planning adaptation – while providing the operator with an estimate of the influence of these corrections for validation."
Elekta developed Icon to be the preferred modality to treat almost any intracranial target. It offers new functionality familiar to radiation oncologists, such as cone beam CT, which should help increase the adoption of radiosurgery. By being attractive to more clinics, more patients will have access to the benefits of precision cranial radiosurgery.
Maurits Wolleswinkel, Executive Vice President Neuroscience at Elekta, says: “By giving doctors greater clinical flexibility and precision, it should also give patients greater confidence and peace of mind. This system is intended to give physicians the ability and confidence to treat virtually any pathology found in the brain with the highest precision and certainty, and the efficient workflows that will allow them to do this every day in the clinic,” he says.
Leksell Gamma Knife Icon is not for sale or distribution in the US and is not CE marked.
# # #
For further information, please contact:
Gert van Santen, Group Vice President Corporate Communications, Elekta AB
Tel: +31 653 561 242, e-mail: [email protected]
Time zone: CET: Central European Time
Tobias Bülow, Director Financial Communication, Elekta AB
Tel: +46 722 215 017, e-mail: [email protected]
Time zone: CET: Central European Time
The above information is such that Elekta AB (publ) shall make public in accordance with the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was published at 10:15 CET on April 25, 2015.
About Elekta
Elekta is a human care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. The company develops sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools and treatment planning systems for radiation therapy, radiosurgery and brachytherapy, as well as workflow enhancing software systems across the spectrum of cancer care. Stretching the boundaries of science and technology, providing intelligent and resource-efficient solutions that offer confidence to both health care providers and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives.
Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 6,000 hospitals worldwide. Elekta employs around 3,800 employees globally. The corporate headquarters is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm. Website: www.elekta.com.