Noninvasive Image-Guided Radiosurgery Can Now Treat Inoperable Lung Cancer

A new noninvasive surgical device for eradicating inoperable lung cancer and other conditions enables clinicians to perform image-guided radiosurgery on tumors of the lung, as well as of the brain, spine, liver, and prostate, without making a single incision.

A powerful new technology for the noninvasive Treatment of Cancer was presented at the 45th annual Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) meeting in San Francisco January 25-27, 2009. The Novalis Tx platform, developed by Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (Palo Alto, CA, USA) and BrainLAB (Munich, Germany) performs stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), a form of non-invasive radiosurgery that uses precisely-shaped and targeted radiation beams to treat tumors and non-malignant growths from outside the body.

"Novalis Tx is a versatile device for performing fast, noninvasive, image-guided radiosurgery,” stated Naren Ramakrishna, M.D., Ph.D., with Dana Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center (Boston, MA, USA).

Early studies comparing SBRT with conventional radiotherapy--the treatment that is most frequently prescribed for patients with inoperable lung tumors--suggest that SBRT can result in a better survival rate. Only 10-30% of inoperable lung cancer patients who receive conventional radiotherapy survive for five years. While five-year data are not yet available for SBRT, the survival rate at three years has ranged from 54-91%. These findings have encouraged the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), a multi-institutional, international organization that coordinates clinical research in radiation oncology, to sponsor a phase II trial of stereotactic body radiosurgery for the treatment of early-stage lung cancer--both operable and inoperable.

"Preliminary studies suggest that stereotactic body radiation offers us a good chance of achieving 85-90% local tumor control rates in the treatment of early-stage lung cancer,” said Martin Fuss, M.D., director of the image-guided radiation therapy program at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU; Portland, OR, USA). Dr. Fuss began using Novalis Tx to perform radiosurgery on patients with lung and other forms of cancer in October 2008.

The Novalis Tx platform combines the most advanced technologies available from Varian Medical Systems, a developer of medical devices and software for treating cancer, and BrainLAB, a developer of software-driven medical technologies for precise and noninvasive surgical procedures. It incorporates a powerful linear accelerator, which rotates around the patient to target surgical beams at tumors from virtually any angle. A set of sophisticated image guidance and motion management tools provide clinicians with detailed information about the shape, size, and position of the targeted lesion, guide patient set up and positioning, and monitor motion during treatment.

For surgery on moving tumors in or near the lungs, the Novalis Tx includes devices for fine beam-shaping and synchronizing treatment with the patient's breathing patterns.

"Using Novalis Tx, clinics can treat twice the number of patients per day than with any other stereotactic radiosurgery system on the market,” remarked Dow Wilson, president of Varian's Oncology Systems business. "The speed and versatility of this technology make Novalis Tx the most cost-effective solution for offering advanced radiosurgical treatments to lung cancer patients and others who can benefit.”

BrainLAB develops, manufactures, and markets software-driven medical technology that enables procedures that are more precise, less invasive, and also less expensive than traditional treatments. Among the core products are image-guided systems that provide highly accurate real-time information used for navigation during surgical procedures.

Varian Medical Systems is a world-leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is also a supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection.

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