LATEST Robotic Radiosurgery Studies Presented at the 5th Annual CyberKnife® Society Users’ Meeting

Leading Physicians from Around the World Share Record Number of Studies on the Efficacy of Robotic Radiosurgery for Treating Extracranial Tumors

Sunnyvale, California, February 7, 2006 – More than 300 of the world’s leading surgeons, radiation oncologists and medical physicists gathered for the 5th Annual CyberKnife® Society Users’ Meeting to present and discuss the latest in robotic radiosurgery applications using the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System. Held on January 25-28, this year’s meeting saw both attendance and clinical abstract submissions surge, particularly in the area of extracranial tumor treatment.

“The CyberKnife Society and Users’ Group Meeting is a pivotal event in the field of robotic radiosurgery as it offers each member of the clinical team the opportunity to discuss the latest CyberKnife applications, techniques and case studies,” said Dr. Richard Bucholz, director of neurosurgery, St. Louis University School of Medicine and chairman of the protocol development committee, CyberKnife Society. “Of particular interest this year was the significant number of studies devoted to the successful treatment of tumors in the lung, liver and prostate demonstrating how far beyond the realm of traditional radiosurgery the CyberKnife has advanced.”

A significant part of the meeting focused on clinical applications using the CyberKnife System to treat thoracic and other general surgery cases which reflected the growing recognition by radiation oncologists, surgeons and others in the medical community of the CyberKnife System’s ability to treat tumors anywhere in the body.  Several clinical presentations reported on the success of radiosurgical treatments of lung lesions with a focus on patients with otherwise limited treatment options. 

Physicians attributed the recent foray into thoracic and general surgery cases in large part to the Synchrony™ Respiratory Tracking System, a key feature of the CyberKnife System. Synchrony technology allows patients to breathe normally throughout their treatment without breath-holding or gating techniques thus enabling clinicians to image, track and treat complex targets, while minimizing damage to healthy tissue or critical structures. .

About the CyberKnife Society
CyberKnife® Society is a California organization dedicated to bringing together diverse medical professionals affiliated with radiosurgery worldwide to foster the scholarly exchange of clinical information, and to educate the general public with information on treating medical conditions such as cancers, lesions and tumors anywhere in the body using the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System. More information can be found at the CyberKnife Society Web site: www.cksociety.org.

About the CyberKnife System
The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is manufactured by Accuray Incorporated in Sunnyvale, California, and is the world’s only radiosurgery system that utilizes intelligent robotics. This enables the CyberKnife to ablate tumors anywhere in the body with sub-millimeter accuracy. The CyberKnife System treats patients in single or staged (typically 2-5) sessions by delivering multiple beams of precisely directed radiation that converge upon the tumor while minimizing injury to surrounding healthy tissue. The CyberKnife uses a combination of image guidance and computer controlled robotics to continuously track, detect and correct for tumor and patient movements throughout the treatment with pinpoint sub-millimeter accuracy. Because of the extreme precision and accuracy of the CyberKnife, no head or body frame is required. CyberKnife has proven to attract a new patient population to a physician’s practice and complements existing radiation therapy, IMRT or IGRT programs. With over 120 systems sold and a large body of peer-reviewed publications supporting its clinical practice, the CyberKnife has treated over 18,000 patients worldwide.

For more information on the CyberKnife Society please contact admin@cksociety.org or call 1-888-522-3740 x286 or visit www.cksociety.org

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