ELEKTA IMPRESSES WITH NEW LEKSELL GAMMA KNIFE ICON RADIOSURGERY SYSTEM

Elekta has received CE approval for the new Leksell Gamma Knife Icon radiosurgery system, making it available to the European market. The system is an elegant solution to all possible applications within the brain, regardless of the dimensions, location and nature of the target. Leksell Gamma Knife Icon includes some unique additions like the cone beam CT which gives surgeons a 3D picture of the entire brain, head position tracking and smart dose control.

“Leksell Gamma Knife Icon is a new concept for performing precision radiosurgery for all types of cranial cases with unlimited clinical and workflow flexibility,” says Tomas Puusepp, President and CEO of Elekta. “Clinicians can choose either frame-based or frameless methods to immobilize the patient’s head, as well as the option to perform the treatment in a single session or in multiple sessions. Icon is also based on the only technology available that can perform ultra-precise Microradiosurgery for the cases where this is required.”

The first installation was accomplished in France’s University Hospital La Timone. The doctors there are seasoned users of Gamma Knife systems, having been the first hospital to treat patients with the Icon’s predecessor, the Gamma Knife Perfexion in 2006. In 2010, Gamma Knife Perfexion was used to treat the 10,000th patient in the center.

The new Gamma Knife Icon takes a few pages out of the book of its younger brother, but has really undergone a serious evolution. It introduces integrated stereotactic cone beam CT which is tied in with the positioning system to determine the exact coordinates, regardless of head movement. Leksell GamePlan together with Adaptive Dose Control automatically adjust dose to account for any corrections, which not only improves accuracy, but reduces unneeded dosage whether performing frame-based or frameless treatments.

Professor Jean Régis, MD, a neurosurgeon and program director for University Hospital La Timone’s Gamma Knife program explains what Gamma Knife Icon can offer.“The first will be to enlarge the scope of indications by permitting hypofractionation [multiple treatment sessions] to be performed more readily, and also treatment of lesions in additional anatomical sites. This is by virtue of the capability to perform frameless treatments with much better technical control,” he says. “The second opportunity is the ability to evaluate shifts in the patient’s position and to adapt the dose proactively to account for these movements. This in particular, will push frameless, hypofractionated radiosurgery to a level that doesn’t exist today.”

Elekta has been at the top of the Gamma Knife market and has now introduced the Icon, which is heads above competition in terms of flexibility and functionality. Because it can be used to treat almost any pathology of the brain, it will be readily accepted by oncologists, surgeons and centers around the world.