Clinical Study Discusses Cost Effectiveness of Surgical Resection and IsoRay's Cesium-131 Intraoperative Brachytherapy

RICHLAND, Wash., Jan. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IsoRay Inc. (NYSE MKT:ISR), a medical technology company and innovator in seed brachytherapy and medical radioisotope applications for the treatment of prostate, brain, lung, head and neck and gynecological cancers, today announced a peer-reviewed publication of the results of a retrospective study on the cost effectiveness of Cesuim-131 in combination with surgical resection for metastatic brain tumors. While parts of the manuscript were presented at a meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology in 2012 in Washington, DC, the research paper - Wernicke, A. Gabriella, et al., "The cost-effectiveness of surgical resection and cesium-131 intraoperative brachytherapy versus surgical resection and stereotactic radiosurgery in the treatment of metastatic brain tumors." DOI 10.1007/s11060-015-2026-4 - was published online on January 2, 2016, in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology. 

The patients in the study were treated at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center between 2008 and 2012.  The treatment records as well as hospital and outpatient charts of 49 patients with brain metastases were retrospectively reviewed.  These 49 patients were placed into two groups.   Twenty-four patients underwent treatment with surgical resection (S) and Cesium-131 (Cs-131) intraoperative brachytherapy, or S + Cs-131, and 25 patients underwent surgical resection (S) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), or S + SRS.  Hospital charges, survival, quality adjusted life years (QALY) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were compared for the two groups. 

The study concluded that surgical resection plus Cesium-131 (S + Cs-131) is a more cost effective alternative to surgical resection and stereotactic radiosurgery (S + SRS), with direct hospital costs of treatment of $19,271 for S + Cs-131 and $44,219 for S + SRS.  Median survival was greater for S + Cs-131 and resulted in a greater quality adjusted life years (QALY). Relative to S + Cs-131, S + SRS resulted in a negative incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) as it was more expensive yet provided a lower QALY.  Therefore, from a resource allocation perspective, this study concluded that S + Cs-131 for brain metastases is the more cost-effective treatment option while providing a better quality of life. 

Bill Cavanagh, IsoRay interim CEO, stated: "This study suggests that surgical resection with intraoperative Cs-131 has proven cost-effectiveness for the treatment of metastatic brain tumors while providing a better quality of life.  As the healthcare industry continues to study the effective allocation of health resources, studies such as this one are critical to providing cutting edge treatments in a truly cost-effective manner.  Interestingly, the measure used in the study for quality of life was better as well." 

About IsoRay

IsoRay, Inc., through its subsidiary, IsoRay Medical, Inc. is the sole producer of Cesium-131 brachytherapy seeds, which are expanding brachytherapy options throughout the body. Learn more about this innovative Richland, Washington, company and explore the many benefits and uses of GliaSite® and Cesium-131 by visiting www.isoray.com. Join us on Facebook/Isoray. Follow us on Twitter @Isoray.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this news release about IsoRay's future expectations, including: the advantages of our products and their delivery systems, whether interest in and use of our products will increase or continue, whether awareness and adoption of our products in the medical community will continue or increase, whether peer-reviewed publications of treatment results using our products will report favorable results, whether S + Cs-131 will demonstrate cost-effectiveness in the treatment of brain metastases, and all other statements in this release, other than historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA"). This statement is included for the express purpose of availing IsoRay, Inc. of the protections of the safe harbor provisions of the PSLRA. It is important to note that actual results and ultimate corporate actions could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements based on such factors as physician acceptance, training and use of our products, our ability to successfully manufacture, market and sell our products, our ability to manufacture our products in sufficient quantities to meet demand within required delivery time periods while meeting our quality control standards, our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights, whether additional studies are released and support the conclusions of past studies, whether ongoing patient results with our products are favorable and in line with the conclusions of clinical studies and initial patient results, patient results achieved when our products are used for the treatment of cancers and malignant diseases, successful completion of future research and development activities, whether we, our distributors and our customers will successfully obtain and maintain all required regulatory approvals and licenses to market, sell and use our products in its various forms, continued compliance with ISO standards as audited by BSI, the success of our sales and marketing efforts, changes in reimbursement rates, changes in laws and regulations applicable to our products, and other risks detailed from time to time in IsoRay's reports filed with the SEC. Unless required to do so by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE IsoRay Inc.

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