Elekta installs breakthrough treatment platform at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, USA

ELEKTA INSTALLS BREAKTHROUGH TREATMENT PLATFORM AT THOMAS JEFFERSON

UNIVERSITY IN PHILADELPHIA, USA

Cancer treatment leader becomes 5th in world to acquire Elekta SynergyTM

research platform system featuring on-board X-ray Volume Imaging (XVI)

In the spring of 2004, Elekta will complete installation of an Elekta

SynergyTM research platform system at Thomas Jefferson University's

(TJU), Bodine Cancer Center, making the university the fifth institution

worldwide to site this innovative new treatment platform. Elekta has

officially appointed Thomas Jefferson University as a member of the

Elekta SynergyTM research group, joining William Beaumont Hospital

(Royal Oak, Michigan, USA), Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto,

Ontario, Canada), Christie Hospital (Manchester, U.K.), and the

Netherlands Cancer Institute (Amsterdam, the Netherlands).

Equipped with an advanced X-ray Volume kilovoltage imaging system (XVI)

and flat-panel AmSi detector technology, the Elekta SynergyTM research

platform system provides sophisticated imaging capabilities with the

patient in the treatment position. The Elekta X-ray Volume Imaging

concept and prototype was developed in 1997 in collaboration with Elekta

clinical partner, William Beaumont Hospital. The concept and prototype

of X-ray Volume Imaging has been further developed by Elekta into a

product which is part of the Elekta SynergyTM system and will make its

debut on October 19, 2003 at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American

Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, ASTRO in Salt Lake City,

Utah, USA.

"Elekta SynergyTM system with XVI is the wave of the future," says James

Galvin, D.Sc., Director of Medical Physics at Thomas Jefferson

University. "Because the patient is imaged within the treatment system's

frame of reference, we can obtain much more timely and accurate

knowledge of target position just prior to treatment, thereby minimizing

the impact of set-up error and organ motion."

"We are very pleased that Thomas Jefferson University - a long-time

clinical partner - has once again chosen to invest in the future of

radiation oncology," says Peter J. Gaccione, Vice President, Oncology at

Elekta, Inc. "By acquiring Elekta SynergyTM research platform system,

the clinicians and scientists there have demonstrated that they share

our vision that radiotherapy can be transformed into a much more precise

and effective treatment modality."

Thomas Jefferson University is preparing and securing funding for their

first Elekta SynergyTM system research proposals - studies of patients

with prostate or head and neck cancers.

Elekta SynergyTM system is pending 510(k) premarket clearance and is not

currently available for sale or distribution in the USA.

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