Hospital Corporation of America Purchases Seventh CyberKnife® System
Most Recent Purchase for Installation in United Kingdom
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 4 / / - Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ:ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that leading healthcare services company, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), has purchased its seventh CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System for HCA's The Harley Street Clinic in London, England. This marks HCA's first non-U.S. CyberKnife System purchase.
"CyberKnife is the most significant technological advance in radiotherapy since the linear accelerator," said Neil Buckley, chief executive of The Harley Street Clinic and director of HCA's cancer services in London. "This will have many benefits for patients and it is a major boost for London as an international centre for medical excellence."
According to Europe's Institute of Cancer Research, 284,560 people were diagnosed with cancer in the United Kingdom in 2004. Prostate cancer and lung cancer make up 12 percent and 13 percent of those diagnosed cases respectively.
"The linking of several technologies from CT and PET scanning with an accelerator head that can move with the patient's every breath means tumors can be targeted with greater accuracy than was previously possible," said Nick Plowman, M.D., oncologist and clinical director of the new CyberKnife Centre. "This machine has shown remarkable results over its years of use in the United States and elsewhere.
Currently, CyberKnife Systems are installed in six HCA locations, including CyberKnife Center of North Florida Radiation Oncology in Gainesville, Fla.; CyberKnife Cancer Center at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla.; St. Lucie Medical CyberKnife Treatment Center in Port St. Lucie, Fla.; Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, Fla.; Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kan.; and Methodist CyberKnife Center in San Antonio, Texas.
"HCA has a reputation for bringing the most cutting-edge capabilities to its hospitals and we are honored they've selected the CyberKnife System as a cancer treatment of choice for seven of their facilities," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Accuray Incorporated. "This contract puts us one step closer to making CyberKnife radiosurgery an option for every cancer patient around the world."
About the CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System
The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the world's only robotic radiosurgery system cleared by the FDA to treat tumors anywhere in the body non-invasively and with sub-millimeter accuracy. Using continual image guidance technology and computer controlled robotic mobility, the CyberKnife System automatically tracks, detects and corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time throughout the treatment. This enables the CyberKnife System to deliver precise, high-dose radiation, minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue and eliminating the need for invasive head or body stabilization frames.
About Accuray
Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ:ARAY), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a global leader in the field of radiosurgery dedicated to providing an improved quality of life and a non-surgical treatment option for those diagnosed with cancer. Accuray develops and markets the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System, which extends the benefits of radiosurgery to include extracranial tumors, including those in the spine, lung, prostate, liver and pancreas. To date, the CyberKnife System has been used to treat more than 35,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 100 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.accuray.com/.
Source: Accuray Incorporated
Web site: http://www.accuray.com/
