Visitors to Italian site view personalized treatment with Elekta Unity
Radiation therapy system lets doctors zero in on tumors and avoid healthy tissue
On January 24, sixty people, including radiation oncologists, physicists and operational managers from throughout Italy were granted the unique opportunity to visit the Elekta Unity MR-Linac installation at the IRCCS Ospedale Sacro Cuore-Don Calabria Cancer Care Center in Negrar-Verona, Italy.
Presentations on their clinical experience with Elekta Unity were given by:
- Alison Tree, MD, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden and Team Leader in Uro-oncology Clinical Trials at the ICR (London, UK)
- Arjun Sahgal, MD, head of Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s Cancer Ablation Therapy Program (Toronto, Canada)
- Ruggero Ruggieri, MD, Head of Medical Physics department, Sacro Cuore-Don Calabria Cancer Care Center
- and Prof. Filippo Alongi, Head of the Advanced Radiation Oncology department at Sacro Cuore-Don Calabria Cancer Care Center and Associate Professor at the University of Brescia
Attendees then spilt into three groups to view live patient treatments – two for extreme hypofractionation cases for prostate cancer and one SBRT case for a pelvic lymph node oligometastases.
“To date, 40 patients with cancer have been treated with more than 190 fractions on Elekta Unity at our Advanced Radiation Oncology Department in Negrar-Verona,” said Prof. Alongi. “Since our clinical launch in October 2019, we’ve been very impressed by the capabilities of the innovative 1.5 T MR-guided adaptive RT approach. So far, the median number of patients treated per day with Elekta Unity is 8-9 – and we are planning to increase this number in the coming months.”
“We commend Prof. Alongi and his colleagues for moving fast to make Elekta Unity available to more and more cancer patients in Italy and southern Europe,” said Renato Leite, Head of Region Europe for Elekta. “I look forward to continuing to watch them make a tremendous clinical impact for patients both within and beyond the borders of Italy.”
Elekta Unity gives doctors the “vision” to zero in on tumors and avoid healthy tissues and thereby addresses an unmet need in cancer therapy – it enables clinicians to confidently see and track the target during treatment and respond accordingly, personalizing therapy for each patient every time they are treated. With Elekta Unity, radiation therapy can be more effective, which could mean not only fewer treatment-related side effects, but also the potential for fewer treatment sessions and visits to the hospital by the patient.
