15-minute cancer treatment: New targeted radiosurgery technology

The Edge™ Radiosurgery Suite is designed to perform advanced, non-invasive cancer procedures anywhere in the body -- including the brain, spine, head and neck, adrenal gland, lung, liver and pancreas -- with extreme precision and low toxicity.

It is the first unit in North America and only available at the Josephine Ford Cancer Institute at Henry Ford Hospital.

The Edge, created by Varian Medical Systems, uses new real-time tumor tracking technology and motion management capabilities, improving both safety and comfort for patients by protecting healthy tissue with sub-millimeter-accuracy. And its "cutting edge" beam offers the agility to treat tumors that may be difficult to reach surgically.

Treatments are typically outpatient and completed within the same week -- with only one to five sessions.

Patients will begin treatment using the Edge this week at Henry Ford Hospital.

A pioneer in the use stereotactic radiation therapy, Henry Ford's Department of Radiation Oncology has treated more than 4,000 patients using this specialized type of stereotactic radiation therapy.

And now, the Edge offers patients:

• Faster treatment: With a dose rate of up to 2,400 monitor units per minute, it offers rapid stereotactic treatments in only 10-20 minutes compared to other systems that can take well over an hour per session.

• Increased comfort: The six degrees (6D) of freedom treatment couch provides the accuracy, precision and flexibility needed to optimally position and adjust patients, allowing them to be comfortable and breathe freely during treatment.

• Real-time imaging: An advanced motion management package makes it possible to better compensate for tumor motion during treatment. The 2.5mm multi-leaf collimator provides a distinct cutting "edge" for radiosurgery treatments.

• Cost-effective medicine: The Edge can accurately treat the vast majority of what a proton beam center can do at a fraction of the cost of a proton unit.

"Henry Ford's Department of Radiation Oncology has a long tradition of expertise with the most advanced radiation technologies, a heritage that will now continue with the addition the Edge," says Benjamin Movsas, M.D., Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford.

"The Edge truly represents a novel platform in radiosurgery, offering a system that provides a fully-integrated solution for planning and administering radiosurgery treatments."

"In radiosurgery, millimeters matter," says neurosurgeon Steven N. Kalkanis, M.D., director of the Center for Cancer Surgery at Henry Ford. "The Edge radiosurgery suite is calibrated for sub-millimeter accuracy. That will help us rest assured that we are doing everything possible to protect normal tissues."

Henry Ford Hospital was selected by Varian as the first site for the Edge in North American because it "represents and embodies clinical excellence and we are thrilled that we get to launch this exciting new platform into clinical use with them," according to Chris Toth, vice president of marketing for Varian's Oncology Systems business.

Henry Ford joins Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, as the first two sites in the world with the Edge.

What is Stereotactic Radiation?

Stereotactic radiation is a procedure that precisely delivers intense radiation doses to tumor targets in one to five treatments. The goal of this non-invasive procedure is to destroy, or make inactive, the tumor while minimizing dose exposure to the surrounding healthy tissue.