Elekta Announces Availability of ERGO++ For VMAT Treatment Planning

Atlanta, Georgia & St. Louis, Missouri, September 12, 2008

Elekta, a human care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer and neurological conditions, today announced, the clinical release of ERGO++ 1.7.1. for Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT), a new treatment technique offering shorter treatment times with the highest degree of precision. Building upon the experience of Arc Modulation, ERGO++ for VMAT can be used with a wide range of equipment, including mini and micro MLCs in addition to the Elekta MLCi (10mm) and Beam Modulator (4mm, full interdigitation).

ERGO++ for VMAT planning will be demonstrated at the ESTRO and ASTRO annual meetings along with Monaco™, a next generation inverse planning solution for IMRT, already in clinical use. Representing a fundamentally new approach to IMRT, Monaco*™ for VMAT planning, developed in cooperation with UKT in Tübingen, Germany, will complement the ERGO++ VMAT solution, incorporating features such as: biological modeling, constrained optimization and Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithms.

Most recently, Elekta has established a VMAT Consortium, including Austria’s Medical University Hospital, in Vienna, Austria, the University of Mannheim in Germany and the University of Tokyo in Japan, all which have been evaluating this technique.
 
“We have prostate and pelvis plans that we would have absolutely no hesitation to implement clinically, based upon the dose distribution quality and the minimal differences between calculation and measurements with ERGO++,” says Frank Lohr, M.D., vice chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology at University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany. “Our experience with the step-by-step improvements for the large field Elekta MLC in the ERGO++ development has been one of the most pleasing experiences of my professional life.”

University of Tokyo Hospital plans to use VMAT for all new prostate cancer patients because of the easy treatment planning afforded by ERGO++.

“With the advent of VMAT, Elekta has improved the technique by including the support of non-coplanar arcs as well as the optimization of the collimator rotation,” says reports Keiichi Nakagawa, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology at University of Tokyo Hospital. ”In terms of speed of delivery a whole revolution of 360 degrees takes less than 2 minutes. In regard to prostate treatments, we already have amazing results with a single rotation plan developed with Ergo++. We like the freedom, whenever necessary, to over-impose more arcs to better modulate the dose from different angles, without the constraint of one single arc, where the improvement on speed doesn’t counterbalance the advantage of getting exactly the dose wanted by adding additional arcs.”

*Monaco™ VMAT is a works-in-progress and not yet commercially available in the U.S.

About Elekta VMAT
Elekta VMAT delivers improved sparing of critical structures and significantly shorter treatment times while maintaining optimal target coverage, when compared with current delivery techniques. The speed and times savings with Elekta VMAT come from simultaneous control of the gantry’s speed of rotation, the dose rate, the MLC leaf positions and the collimator angle, all while the radiation beam is on. With Elekta VMAT, the clinician chooses the best delivery method: one arc, two arcs, sub-arc or a combination.

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 and radiosurgery, 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 healthcare providers and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives, making the future possible today.

Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 5,000 hospitals globally, and every day more than 100,000 patients receive diagnosis, treatment or follow-up with the help of a solution from the Elekta Group.

Elekta employs around 2,500 employees globally. The corporate headquarter is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on the Nordic Exchange under the ticker EKTAb. For more information about Elekta, please visit www.elekta.com.

Media Contact:
Michelle Lee
Elekta, Inc.
770-670-2447
michelle.lee@elekta.com
www.elekta.com