Japan Medical Centers Establishing New Standard of Excellence for Treating Cancer and Intracranial Lesions with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion
Tokyo, Japan, May 14, 2010 Clinicians seeking exceptional precision, workflow in brain radiosurgery welcome Elekta's fifth generation Leksell Gamma Knife system While centers in Japan currently operate more than 50 Leksell Gamma Knife® systems, interest in acquiring additional Elekta radiosurgery systems shows no signs of declining. In January, Nippon Steel Yawata Memorial Hospital (NSYMH, Kitakyushu) became Japan’s fourth medical center to begin treating with Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™, a stereotactic radiosurgery system specifically designed to treat one or more brain and head targets in a single session. The three other Perfexion users are: - Furukawa Seiryo Hospital (Furukawa, Miyagi)
- Yokohama Rosai Hospital (Yokohama City, Kanagawa)
- Atami Tokoro Memorial Hospital (Atami, Shizuoka)
Treating multiple metastases during single session is ideal Perfexion application
It’s so much simpler to move from one intracranial target to the next with Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion that Furukawa Seiryo Hospital clinicians have discovered they can treat numerous metastases in a single session at the push of a button. The Perfexion system dramatically streamlines workflow and expands the types of treatable targets through advanced automated components. Brain metastases are the most common Perfexion indication at Furukawa Seiryo Hospital’s Jiro Suzuki Memorial Gamma House, with 398 cases out of a total of 642 cases (62 percent) from December 2008 to present. “The Perfexion system is particularly well-suited for treating multiple metastases,” says Hidefumi Jokura, M.D., VP and Director at the Gamma House. “We compared treatment times of 50 consecutive met cases using our previous model Gamma Knife C and the Perfexion system at the same dose rate. We have been able to cut treatment times by more than half, making it feasible to increase our workload from three cases per day to five cases daily.” Dr. Jokura adds that a major research focus for the hospital’s radiosurgery practice is to accumulate evidence of the efficacy and superiority of Gamma Knife® surgery over whole brain radiation therapy for multiple mets (> 4 lesions).
More indications, easier workflow reinforce Gamma Knife surgery precision
Fifty to 60 percent of NSYMH’s Gamma Knife surgery cases annually are for treatment of metastases. For small mets, Perfexion has fulfilled the promise of matching and exceeding the pinpoint accuracy for which Leksell Gamma Knife® is renowned, says Satoshi Suzuki, M.D., Director at Neurosurgery and LGK Center. “Precision is critical in treating patients with small intracranial lesions, especially for patients with benign pathology,” he observes. “Minimizing radiation dose to surrounding tissue also is important, so in these aspects, Perfexion is the best stereotactic radiosurgery modality. The Extend™ program* for Perfexion will enable even more indications.” Extend allows clinicians to non-invasively fix or immobilize the patient’s head, making repeatable or “hypofractionated” Gamma Knife surgery practical for certain cases. These include patients with larger tumors or lesions close to critical structures located in the brain, skull base and in other regions in the head and neck. Gamma Knife surgery workflow is much improved with Perfexion, Dr. Suzuki adds. “Perfexion is extremely user friendly, which has increased ease of use among our staff and comfort for our patients,” he notes. “Treatment is much shorter, which enables us to be more meticulous in treatment planning.”
*Extend requires regulatory approval from the Japanese Ministry for Health, Labor and Welfare and is not yet commercially available in Japan.
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