DETROIT, March 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Patients at
Henry Ford Hospital now have a new cancer treatment available that
offers an alternative cancer surgery, without the incision or
hospital stay, treating patients in 15 minutes or less and
returning them to their everyday lives.
The Edge™ Radiosurgery Suite is designed to perform advanced,
non-invasive cancer procedures anywhere in the body – including the
brain, spine, head and neck, adrenal gland, lung, liver and
pancreas – with extreme precision and low toxicity.
It is the first unit in North
America and only available at the Josephine Ford Cancer
Institute at Henry Ford Hospital.
The Edge, created by Varian Medical Systems, uses new real-time
tumor tracking technology and motion management capabilities,
improving both safety and comfort for patients by protecting
healthy tissue with sub-millimeter-accuracy. And its "cutting edge"
beam offers the agility to treat tumors that may be difficult to
reach surgically.
Treatments are typically outpatient and completed within the
same week – with only one to five sessions.
Patients will begin treatment using the Edge this week at Henry
Ford Hospital.
A pioneer in the use of stereotactic radiation therapy, Henry
Ford's Department of Radiation Oncology has treated more than 4,000
patients using this specialized type of stereotactic radiation
therapy.
And now, the Edge offers patients:
- Faster treatment: With a dose rate of up to 2,400
monitor units per minute, it offers rapid stereotactic treatments
in only 10-20 minutes compared to other systems that can take well
over an hour per session.
- Increased comfort: The six degrees (6D) of freedom
treatment couch provides the accuracy, precision and flexibility
needed to optimally position and adjust patients, allowing them to
be comfortable and breathe freely during treatment.
- Real-time imaging: An advanced motion management package
makes it possible to better compensate for tumor motion during
treatment. The 2.5mm multi-leaf collimator provides a distinct
cutting "edge" for radiosurgery treatments.
- Cost-effective medicine: The Edge can accurately
treat the vast majority of what a proton beam center can do at a
fraction of the cost of a proton unit.
"Henry Ford's Department of Radiation Oncology has a long
tradition of expertise with the most advanced radiation
technologies, a heritage that will now continue with the addition
of the Edge," says Benjamin Movsas,
M.D., Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Henry
Ford.
"The Edge truly represents a novel platform in radiosurgery,
offering a system that provides a fully-integrated solution for
planning and administering radiosurgery treatments."
"In radiosurgery, millimeters matter," says neurosurgeon
Steven N. Kalkanis, M.D., director
of the Center for Cancer Surgery at Henry Ford. "The Edge
radiosurgery suite is calibrated for sub-millimeter accuracy. That
will help us rest assured that we are doing everything possible to
protect normal tissues."
Henry Ford Hospital was selected by Varian as the first site for
the Edge in North America because
it "represents and embodies clinical excellence and we are thrilled
that we get to launch this exciting new platform into clinical use
with them," according to Chris Toth,
vice president of marketing for Varian's Oncology Systems
business.
Henry Ford joins Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, as the first two sites in
the world with the Edge.
What is Stereotactic Radiation?
Stereotactic radiation
is a procedure that precisely delivers intense radiation doses to
tumor targets in one to five treatments. The goal of this
non-invasive procedure is to destroy, or make inactive, the tumor
while minimizing dose exposure to the surrounding healthy
tissue.
For more information about the Department of Radiation Oncology
at Henry Ford, go to www.henryford.com/edge. To learn more about
Varian and the Edge, visit www.varian.com.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140327/DE92316
SOURCE Henry Ford Hospital