Seven US Medical Centers to Acquire Elekta's New Leksell Gamma Knife Icon Brain Radiosurgery System

ATLANTA, October 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Patients in the United States with brain cancer or any of a range of other neurological disorders will soon have access to the most sophisticated system for the radiosurgical treatment of their disease. Seven centers are first in the nation to order Leksell Gamma Knife® Icon™, which features the first integrated stereotactic cone beam CT imaging, online adaptive dose evaluation and planning enabling the most accurate delivery of frameless and frame-based treatments. Icon was designed to enable treatment of virtually any target in the brain - from refractory essential tremor and complex vascular malformations to multiple metastases - while delivering the lowest dose to healthy tissues.

The first US Icon installations will be: Emory St. Joseph's Hospital (Atlanta, Georgia), University of Virginia Health System (Charlottesville, Virginia), Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, New York), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, Texas), Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida (Miami, Florida), University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and Gamma Knife of Spokane (Spokane, Washington).

Gamma Knife Icon is the sixth generation of the company's Leksell Gamma Knife system, a technology that has been in use worldwide and continually evolving since the 1980s. In the United States, Gamma Knife is the most commonly used radiosurgery platform for the brain^[1], is the most clinically proven technology for cranial indications^[2] and offers the lowest dose to normal tissues ^[3]-[7].

"UPMC has partnered with Elekta since the first 201-source Gamma Knife - the fifth worldwide - was installed in Pittsburgh in 1987," says L. Dade Lunsford, MD, Lars Leksell Professor of Neurosurgery at UPMC and consultant to Elekta. "Each of the six generations of Gamma Knife has resulted in improvements in the outcomes and efficiency of brain radiosurgery, and we have pioneered their use. We are pleased to add the first US complete Gamma Knife Icon system with anticipated installation in early 2016. Icon will add new methods of non-invasive cranial immobilization, while preserving standard immobilization technologies - used in more than 14,500 patients at UPMC - for patients with brain tumors and vascular malformations located in critical brain regions."

According to Peter J. Rossi, MD, Medical Director, Radiation Oncology at Emory St. Joseph's Hospital, the upgrade of its Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™ system to Icon presents new opportunities to treat patients with lesions more suited to a frameless, multi-session approach.

"Patients with lesions such as small metastases have benefited from the high precision, reproducibility and targeting ability of our Perfexion system, but with larger or more critically located tumors it can be better to fractionate their treatment," Dr. Rossi explains. "With the Icon system, we will have the best of all worlds. We can maintain the unparalleled precision to treat tumors with the lowest possible radiation exposure to healthy tissues, while at the same time opening up the possibility to confidently treat without the stereotactic frame over more than a single session. These indications include acoustic schwannomas and complex meningiomas that may be close to hearing and visual anatomy, respectively, and large pituitary lesions, for example, that require the accumulation of a large dose over multiple sessions to protect healthy brain tissues."

"Leksell Gamma Knife Icon establishes a new international standard for precision radiosurgery and fractionated radiotherapy for targets within the brain and head and neck," adds Christopher M. Lee, MD, Research Director for Gamma Knife of Spokane and Cancer Care Northwest. "We look forward to the new innovations in patient comfort, precision and speed of treatment, on-demand adaptability with regard to patient dose, as well as the novel cutting-edge motion management features. This technology will be practice-changing for our group, and is a great enhancement to overall patient care."

"We are pleased that these world-class centers - many of which also have access to stereotactic linear accelerators - have recognized the value of this latest generation Gamma Knife system as their system of choice for brain radiosurgery," says Bill Yaeger, Elekta's Executive Vice President, Region North America. "The unique motion management and imaging technologies in Icon reinforce the level of precision for which Gamma Knife technology is renowned - making Gamma Knife microradiosurgery even more accurate for particularly challenging cases."  

To learn more about Leksell Gamma Knife Icon, visit http://www.careforthebrain.com.

1. CMS data through 2013
2. Pubmed through June 2015
3. Ma L, Petti P, Wang B, et al. (2011) Apparatus dependence of normal brain tissue dose in stereotactic radiosurgery for multiple brain metastases. J Neurosurg 114(6):1580-1584. doi:10.3171/2011.1.JNS101056.
4. Ma L, Nichol A, Hossain S, et al. (2014) Variable dose interplay effects across radiosurgical apparatus in treating multiple brain metastases. Int J CARS. Published online: 20 April 2014. doi:10.1007/s11548-014-1001-4
5. Descovich M, Sneed PK, Barbaro NM, et al. (2010) A dosimetric comparison between Gamma Knife and CyberKnife treatment plans for trigeminal neuralgia. J Neurosurg 113:199-206.
6. McDonald D, Schuler J, Takacs I, et al. (2014) Comparison of radiation dose spillage from the Gamma Knife Perfexion with that from volumetric modulated arc radiosurgery during treatment of multiple brain metastases in a single fraction. J Neurosurg (Suppl 2) 121:51-59.
7. Lindquist C, Paddick I. (2007) The Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion and comparisons with its predecessors. Neurosurgery 61:ONS-130-ONS-141, doi: 10.1227/01.NEU.0000279989.86544.B6.

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 07:30 CET on October 12, 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: http://www.elekta.com.

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

Johan Andersson, Director, Investor Relations, Elekta AB
Tel: +46-702-100-451, e-mail: [email protected]
Time zone: CET: Central European Time

SOURCE Elekta