17 September 2024 | News
Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ: ARAY) announced that Gifu Prefectural General Medical Center is setting a new standard in cancer care in Japan as the first hospital in the country to treat patients with surface-guided radiation therapy (SGRT) using the company's Radixact® Radiation Delivery System and VitalHold™* package. SGRT is designed to help medical care teams to effectively position the patient and confidently monitor the accuracy of that positioning throughout treatment. The ability to confidently monitor also enables the deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) technique, which is often used in left breast cancer treatment to help protect the heart from radiation.
During treatment with SGRT, high resolution cameras continuously monitor a patient's breathing and position in real-time to create a 3-dimensional map of a patient's skin. The image enables medical care teams to easily visualize the difference between the current body position and the target position, helping to ensure the patient is appropriately positioned when radiation is delivered.
"I am very pleased with the customer interest in Japan for VitalHold, our joint solution in partnership with C-Rad, since we received Shonin approval at the end of 2023. At Accuray, we are relentlessly focused on innovation that improves the value of, and patient access to, our products. The VitalHold technology reflects this focus, adding to the unique benefits offered by the Radixact System and expanding options for delivering high precision radiation treatments," said Sandeep Chalke, Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer and interim CEO at Accuray. "We are proud to support Gifu Prefectural General Medical Center as they treat the first patients in Japan with the Radixact System and VitalHold. This is an important milestone that I believe will accelerate their team's efforts to improve access, outcomes and the patient experience."
Approximately 50 percent of all cancer patients need radiotherapy at least once to cure their cancer, increase the chance of cure or relieve symptoms caused by cancer1. The Gifu Prefectural General Medical Center team is focused on driving a fundamental change in the way cancer is managed.
"We are delighted to announce the commencement of our hospital's use of the Radixact System with VitalHold. In our efforts to enhance the availability of radiation therapy delivered in our department, which has long been a challenge, we have constructed a new building, introduced the Radixact System and will initiate treatments with the Accuray CyberKnife® S7™ System at a later date. One of the reasons we decided to switch from an older C-arm linear accelerator, which we have been using for many years, to the Radixact System, is to take advantage of the unique benefits of helical imaging and delivery in combination with the capabilities of VitalHold," said Yuichi Kajiura, M.D., department of radiation oncology, Gifu Prefectural General Medical Center.
Continued Dr. Kajiura, "By using VitalHold, we can set up patients faster than initially anticipated and monitor the patient's position throughout the radiation treatment. With the use of hypofractionation, or the delivery of increased dose per session, monitoring the patient's position during irradiation has become extremely important. These factors enable us to deliver highly accurate treatments and will help us to provide the highest quality medical services to our patients."
At Gifu Prefectural General Medical Center, the team is using ClearRT™ to produce diagnostic-like quality images that will empower them to make more informed decisions about all aspects of their patients' treatments. To date, ClearRT has facilitated accurate patient alignment - with clearer images - than conventional MVCT. ClearRT has also enabled the Gifu team to plan and deliver more precise treatments, by providing them with the ability to clearly see changes in the contours of the body and the shape of the tumor due to daily radiation therapy.
