Company Press Release
Medical Breakthrough Announced at World Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Congress in Sydney
SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 26,1999/PRNewswire/ -- Exciting developments
have been announced at the 4th International Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Society Congress, being held in Sydney, Australia this week.
Siemens/Radionics has entered into a research agreement with The Prince
of Wales Hospital, Sydney, for the international development of new
software for linear accelerators, which are used in stereotactic
radiosurgery (SRS).
SRS usually involves high doses of radiation being delivered to a
specific part of the body. It is used on patients suffering from
conditions including tumours, vascular malformations, epilepsy and
PARKINSON'S Disease. The Prince of Wales Hospital -- a large tertiary
referral hospital and the first facility in Australasia to provide a
dedicated SRS facility -- is the host hospital for the Congress.
The Linear Accelerator -- the preferred method of treatment at Prince of
Wales -- brings a thin pencil-like beam in from multiple directions to
focus on one point. Linear accelerators allow treatment to a single part
of the body, or multiple parts simultaneously, and can be used on any
part of the body. Prince of Wales is one of only a few places in the
world that has been able to adapt SRS for use on infants.
Senior specialist at the Department of Radiation Oncology at The Prince
of Wales Hospital, Dr. Bob Smee, said the new software would allow
linear accelerators to alter the intensity of the radiation beam. ``We
can deliver a high dose of radiation to, say, a tumour around the spinal
cord or within the brain, and as the beam travels across adjacent normal
tissue the intensity is markedly reduced -- thereby saving normal tissue
from radiation damage,'' Dr. Smee explained.
The Prince of Wales Hospital has just taken delivery of a $2m Siemens
Primus Linear Accelerator. ``With the Primus we can now treat more
irregular growths and limit the doses of radiation to adjacent normal
tissue -- a process we will improve upon during our new research
agreement with the company,'' Dr. Smee added.
SOURCE: South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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