CyberKnife® VSI™ System Expands Treatment Applications and Significantly Reduces Treatment Times

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today feedback from Creekside Cancer Care on their use of the CyberKnife VSI System.  Creekside Cancer Care was the first facility in the world to install and begin treating patients with the CyberKnife VSI System.  Patient treatments began in June 2010 and clinicians at Creekside Cancer Care quickly reported that average treatment times are less than 30 minutes.

The CyberKnife VSI System, launched in November 2009, is the latest addition to the CyberKnife product family.  The CyberKnife VSI System leverages the versatility, simplicity, and intelligence of the CyberKnife System to broaden the range of treatment options physicians can offer their patients - from radiosurgery to include conventionally fractionated Robotic IMRT™.  The CyberKnife VSI System features a world-class 1,000 MU/minute X-band linear accelerator, advanced visualization capabilities, automated segmentation capabilities and logical workflow enhancements designed to streamline the physician and patient experience.

To date Creekside Cancer Care has treated more than 45 patients using the new CyberKnife VSI System across a variety of indications including prostate, head and neck, lung, spine and liver.  In addition to traditional intracranial radiosurgery and expanded whole body radiosurgery, clinicians at Creekside are regularly using the latest capability of the CyberKnife VSI System, Robotic IMRT, to address prostate cancer.  The enhanced spectrum of treatment options allows for more customized treatment plans based on patient-specific situations and conditions, such as patients requiring re-irradiation of previously treated areas, or patients requiring partial breast irradiation.  Other examples of where they have found expanded fractionation capabilities useful have been in the treatment of spine, hip and head and neck lesions.

Creekside clinicians report that one of the greatest advantages of the CyberKnife VSI System is the user's ability to adapt to a wider variety of planning objectives based on the clinical situation and then seamlessly deliver a treatment.  They note that treatment delivery features, such as time based intra-fraction imaging, dramatically reduce the time on the table for patients.

"The CyberKnife VSI System enables our physicians, therapists, and physicists to have more flexibility when prescribing and delivering treatment," said Lee McNeely, M.D., of Creekside Cancer Care.  "Because we have been routinely able to deliver treatment in less than 30 minutes, we have greatly improved the patient experience."

"It is encouraging to hear directly from our customers that the CyberKnife VSI System is achieving the intended goal of improving patient care," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Accuray.  "We look forward to working with existing and new customers to incorporate the enhanced capabilities the CyberKnife VSI System offers into their cancer programs so they can expand the patient population that can benefit from CyberKnife treatments."

Dr. McNeely, who has treated more than 2,000 CyberKnife cases in his career, will present a discussion of Creekside Cancer Care's early CyberKnife VSI experience and further potential clinical opportunities at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) on Monday, November 1, 2010 from 2:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. PT and Tuesday, November 2 from 4:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. PT. For more on Dr. McNeely's presentation and other CyberKnife presentations at ASTRO please visit www.accurayescalate.com.

About Creekside Cancer Care

Creekside Cancer Care is a free-standing physician owned cancer care facility located in a scenic and tranquil creek side setting in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Lafayette, Colorado just 30 minutes from Denver International Airport. Creekside Cancer Care boasts the most advanced clinical and health care information technologies available.  The clinical focus of our extensively trained physicians and staff is to provide the best and most efficient patient centric care possible for the treatment of benign and malignant tumors throughout the body as well as functional neurological disorders.

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 100,000 patients worldwide and more than 206 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia.  For more information, please visit www.accuray.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

The foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated with the medical device industry.  Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements relating to clinical experience and market acceptance are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events.  You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements.  Important factors that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make include: average treatment times, range of treatment options, clinical applications, and market acceptance of products and other risks detailed from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on Form 10-K for the 2010 fiscal year which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed on August 31, 2010.  The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors.  We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual performance or results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Accuray Incorporated