CyberKnife Radiosurgery to be Highlighted by Leading Thoracic Surgeons at 2011 STS Annual Meeting

SUNNYVALE, Calif., and SAN DIEGO, Jan. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meeting – Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that its CyberKnife technology will be featured at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) annual meeting, Jan. 31 - Feb. 2. In course 11 titled: "Image-Guided Ablation of Lung Tumors Using Radiofrequency Energy and Stereotactic Radiosurgery," James D. Luketich, M.D., and Arjun Pennathur, M.D., from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa will be highlighting the benefits of CyberKnife radiosurgery with a particular emphasis on the central role of the thoracic surgeon.

This focus on CyberKnife radiosurgery is timely, following the recently released initial results from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) based on data from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) in late 2010, which highlighted the potential benefits of lung cancer screening.  In particular, this trial demonstrated a reduction in lung cancer related deaths for smokers screened with low dose Computed Tomography (CT) scans as compared to those screened with chest X-rays and attributed this reduction in mortality to be a function of earlier diagnosis of lung cancer that allowed patients to be treated for more curable, earlier forms of the disease.

"Lung cancer is a disease that is typically diagnosed at very late stages and therefore is associated with very poor long-term survival rates. The NLST study results provide encouraging support of the potential benefits that screening has on lung cancer diagnosis and improved patient outcomes. We are hopeful that such methods will allow more patients to be diagnosed with locally confined tumors that are amenable to focal therapies, improving their overall chances of survival and a cure," said Omar Dawood, M.D., M.P.H., vice president of global medical affairs at Accuray Incorporated. "As more patients are diagnosed earlier, non-invasive treatment options, such as CyberKnife radiosurgery, become even more important, especially since many of these patients are smokers and are poor surgical candidates given associated advanced lung and heart disease."

Support for the benefits of CyberKnife radiosurgery for lung cancer patients continues to expand through publications and presentations of data at major medical conferences. Brian Collins, M.D., radiation oncologist at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., recently presented the long term outcomes of CyberKnife radiosurgery for stage I non-small cell lung cancer patients who were not surgical candidates due to associated advanced heart and lung disease at the 2010 American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) annual conference.  Dr. Collins' research found that in these patients, CyberKnife radiosurgery was able to achieve a three-year survival rate of 76 percent with low post-treatment toxicity outcomes. The analysis demonstrated that these results compare favorably with those of lung cancer patients receiving wedge resection, a surgical procedure.  

These results support the comparison of these two treatment options in the currently underway comparative study STARS (Stereotactic Radiation Therapy vs. Surgery Study) led by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas that is comparing survival rates following non-invasive CyberKnife radiosurgery to traditional surgery for patients with early stage lung cancer. The intent is to generate data that may expand the potential benefits that CyberKnife radiosurgery can bring for operable lung cancer patients.  

"With improved lung cancer diagnostics and treatments emerging, it's important for the thoracic surgery community to embrace and become involved in non-invasive treatments, such as CyberKnife radiosurgery, and learn how to incorporate them into a practice," said James D. Luketich, MD. "Our STS course will provide an overview of the principles and techniques of CyberKnife radiosurgery, will describe patient selection, and highlight the importance of thoracic surgeons expanding their treatment offerings to include such non-invasive treatment options for their lung cancer patients."  

Also at the STS meeting, Accuray will showcase its Lung Optimized Treatment, a new component of the CyberKnife VSI™System. The Lung Optimized Treatment allows physicians to offer the option of a completely non-invasive CyberKnife radiosurgery treatment to patients with localized lung tumors, regardless of tumor location.  A demonstration of the technology will be shown at Accuray's booth #309.

About the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System

The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the world's only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body non-invasively. Using continual image guidance technology and computer controlled robotic mobility, the CyberKnife System automatically tracks, detects and corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time throughout the treatment. This enables the CyberKnife System to deliver high-dose radiation with pinpoint precision, which minimizes damage to surrounding healthy tissue and eliminates the need for invasive head or body stabilization frames.

About Accuray

Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a global leader in the field of radiosurgery dedicated to providing an improved quality of life and a non-surgical treatment option for those diagnosed with cancer. Accuray develops and markets the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System, which extends the benefits of radiosurgery to include extracranial tumors, including those in the spine, lung, prostate, liver and pancreas. To date, the CyberKnife System has been used to treat more than 100,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 222 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.accuray.com. 

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SOURCE Accuray Incorporated