Ongoing research and the collaboration between the OEM and leading facilities promises to continue expanding the clinical reach of the Gamma Knife. The National Institutes of Health is currently sponsoring a U.S. study that’s investigating the use of radiosurgery for the treatment of epilepsy.

“Researchers are looking at patients who have seizures related to mesial temporal sclerosis and they’re hoping that if they give enough radiation to that portion of the temporal lobe that has the sclerosis, they’ll prevent epilepsy,” says Hall.

The focus on research was evident at this year’s International Leksell Gamma Knife Society meeting held in May. A record 332 posters and oral presentations were submitted for the meeting, the most ever in the society’s 21-year history, said Nylund.

“A continuous growth of tumor radiosurgery fueled by Perfexion’s ability to treat multiple lesions and multiple fractions is expected,” he said. “Another growing field is in functional neurosurgery, which also includes the use of Gamma Knife radiosurgery for Parkinson’s disease and trigeminal neuralgia.”

CyberKnife
Accuray’s CyberKnife is another specialty radiation delivery device. Unlike the Gamma Knife, it’s a frameless robotic radiosurgery system that is not limited to intracranial sites and can treat tumors throughout the body. The CyberKnife uses a compact linear accelerator on the end of a robot arm that delivers the treatment, explains Dr. Omar Dawood, VP of clinical development with Accuray. The mobility of the robotic arm enables the delivery of radiation from a wide variety of angles, thus providing precise sculpting of the dose delivery to the target.

“We have treated just about 90,000 tumors now with the CyberKnife all over the body,” says Dawood. “A little more than half, about 55 percent of all the patients treated are extracranial right now.”

Accuray pioneered the first technology to continuously synchronize beam delivery to the motion of the tumor when it introduced the Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System. The system enables clinicians to reduce wide treatment margins in the planning to compensate for the moving target.

More recently, the company released the XSight Lung System, which works with the Synchrony system. Originally, Synchrony used implanted markers in the tumor but XSight Lung allows the system to lock onto the tumor itself.

“It does that by essentially using an algorithm that enhances the images that are taken during treatment,” says Dawood. “It’s revolutionary because now you’re actually tracking.”

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