Accuray's Treatment Planning Service Active at 20 Percent of U.S. CyberKnife Centers
October 27 2009 - 12:44PM
PR Newswire (US)
Service Offers Specialized Physicist Support to New and Existing
CyberKnife Sites SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
-- Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ:ARAY), a global leader in the field
of radiosurgery, announced today that 20 percent of the company's
U.S. installed base has signed on to utilize Accuray's Treatment
Planning Service. This demonstrates a significant increase over the
10 percent of U.S. sites that had signed on as of February 2009.
Accuray's Treatment Planning Service is designed to help customers
maximize utilization of their CyberKnife System. The service
connects each center's physicist team to a group of remote medical
physicists who specialize in CyberKnife radiosurgery treatment
planning. The Treatment Planning Service can serve as a supplement
for centers that require additional support to meet growing patient
volumes or fluctuations in staffing without adjusting their fixed
costs. It also can help new customers gain confidence, share
knowledge, and begin delivering more complex CyberKnife treatments
faster by providing a pathway for collaboration with specialized
medical physicists. At CyberKnife of Birmingham, Accuray's
Treatment Planning Service provided added capacity and support to
the startup goals of this new site, which went live in May 2009.
CyberKnife of Birmingham has been able to take on a broad spectrum
of cases from their referring physician base while providing world
class care to the Birmingham community. "The Accuray Treatment
Planning Service has been very helpful in providing us with remote
tools and supplemental planning support in managing our patient
volume," said Elizabeth Fourie, administrator for CyberKnife of
Birmingham, in Birmingham, Alabama. "Treatment planning by medical
physicists is a core component in the workflow of CyberKnife
radiosurgery treatment delivery," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D.,
president and CEO of Accuray Incorporated. "Because Accuray's
Treatment Planning Service helps CyberKnife centers control costs
and run their business more efficiently, it's catching on really
quickly amongst our customer base." Accuray recently entered into a
multi-site agreement with Alliance Oncology, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Alliance HealthCare Services (NYSE: AIQ), to
facilitate access to Accuray's Treatment Planning Service at five
of their CyberKnife Centers and leverage the remote toolset offered
by the Service. While the Treatment Planning Service is currently
focused on U.S. CyberKnife Centers, the company will begin reaching
out to international customers in 2010. To that end, Accuray has
formalized the first international agreement with CyberClinic in
Kiev, Ukraine. "We are committed to delivering the highest standard
of quality and care to the patients we serve. For this reason, we
have partnered with Accuray's Treatment Planning Service to help us
accomplish that goal," said Yuri Spizhenko, M.D., Ph.D., president
of CyberClinic. To schedule a demonstration of Accuray's Treatment
Planning Service at the American Society for Radiation Oncology
(ASTRO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, please visit
http://www.accuraychicago.com/. About the CyberKnife® Robotic
Radiosurgery System The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is
the world's only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat
tumors anywhere in the body non-invasively. 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 high-dose radiation
with pinpoint precision, which minimizes damage to surrounding
healthy tissue and eliminates 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 70,000 patients worldwide
and currently more than 176 systems have been installed in leading
hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information,
please visit http://www.accuray.com/. Safe Harbor Statement The
foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated
with the medical device industry. Except for the historical
information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press
release, including statements relating to benefits and use of
services, qualifications of personnel, commercialization of
products, clinical studies, and regulatory review and approval are
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor"
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements
are made and are based on information available at the time those
statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of
that time with respect to future events. You should not put undue
reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that
could cause actual performance and results to differ materially
from the forward-looking statements we make include: market
acceptance of products; competing products, the combination of our
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from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on
Form 10-K for our 2009 fiscal year and our other filings with the
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Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s),
click appropriate link. Euan Thomson, Ph.D.
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=81869
Omar Dawood, M.D., MPH
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=85068
DATASOURCE: Accuray Incorporated CONTACT: Stephanie Tomei, Senior
Manager, Public Relations of Accuray Incorporated, +1-408-789-4234,
; or Brianne Donahue of Schwartz Communications, +1-415-817-2545, ,
for Accuray Incorporated Web Site: http://www.accuray.com/
http://www.accuraychicago.com/
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