Munich, 1 October 2015 - The European CyberKnife Center Munich (ECZM) announced today that they have successfully performed their first ten cancer treatments with the CyberKnife® M6™ System using the new InCise™ 2 Multileaf Collimator (MLC).
Recently developed and officially released for clinical usage, the MLC expands the versatility of the CyberKnife System, enabling clinicians to treat a broader range of tumours in size and shape than before with significantly reduced treatment times. With the adoption of the new InCise 2 MLC, the Munich CyberKnife Center continues to provide its patients with cutting-edge treatments.
The Munich CyberKnife Center has successfully performed their first ten treatments using the CyberKnife M6 System with the InCise 2 MLC in significantly shorter treatment times. The patients, diagnosed with liver, prostate or brain tumours, were typical candidates for radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy delivered by the CyberKnife System. “We recently treated a patient with brain metastases after lung cancer using the new InCise 2 MLC. We achieved the same sub-millimeter precision we have come to rely on with the CyberKnife System, in 20 minutes, so half the time compared to previous treatment sessions using another collimator. The CyberKnife treatment time included set-up, continuous imaging and the time spent delivering the radiation. This technical feature is a clear benefit to our department and to our patients“, said Prof. Alexander Muacevic, who founded the Munich CyberKnife Center together with his colleague Prof. Berndt Wowra in 2005.
Over the last ten years, the ECZM has successfully performed nearly 6,000 tumour treatments. For patients, a CyberKnife treatment is pain-free and convenient. Whereas conventional radiation therapy lasts several weeks and conventional surgery involves high side effects, the CyberKnife System is a safe and effective alternative for tumour treatment. A 78-year old man who had liver metastases after colorectal cancer received an outpatient CyberKnife treatment using the InCise 2 MLC to treat his large tumour volume of 70,1 cm3. The treatment time was 19 minutes. This is significantly shorter than the 60 minutes it would have taken with conventional fixed collimators. The new InCise 2 MLC treatment is similarly accurate and effective at sparing healthy liver tissue. After a short treatment time, patients are able to leave for home and spend the day with their families. Therefore, the CyberKnife treatment enables them to continue with their normal daily routine and helps them to maintain a good quality of life.
“I want to recognise the European CyberKnife Center Munich for its latest achievement in having successfully treated the first patients with the CyberKnife M6 System using the InCise 2 MLC,” said Lionel Hadjadjeba, President of Accuray International. “The MLC is a major advancement for the CyberKnife System and this accomplishment was realised through partnering with experienced clinicians committed to enhancing the quality of care they provide to their patients.”
The CyberKnife M6™ Series delivers radiosurgery enabling precise, high-quality dose distributions to be delivered to the patient with extreme accuracy over a minimum number of treatments, reducing side effects and preserving patients' quality of life. The CyberKnife® System directs treatment beams differing in size, shape, and intensity from hundreds of non-coplanar angles around the patient. The ability to deliver more beams from more angles gives the clinician freedom to generate highly conformal dose distributions that carefully avoid healthy organs. During each treatment, the system continually collects images to track tumour motion and automatically adjusts for that motion in real-time, ensuring that clinicians deliver radiation exactly where they want it.
About the European CyberKnife Center
The European CyberKnife Center Munich is one of the world’s leading centers for radiosurgery. As Germany's first CyberKnife center it was opened in cooperation with the University Clinic Munich (LMU) on July 1, 2005. Its medical experience is based on nearly 6,000 courses of treatment since 2005. Already since 2013 the Munich center has been using the latest generation of CyberKnife technology (M6). Besides the clinical and scientific cooperation with the LMU, the Munich Center collaborates internationally with colleagues around the world. Being part of the Radiosurgery Society's (www.therss.org) Board of Directors the ECZM puts great efforts in the development of internationally appreciated treatment standards, education and quality control.
1 October 2015
