CyberKnife VOLO Optimizer
Accuray showcases software upgrades for CyberKnife and Radixact at ASTRO
October 29, 2018
by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter
The latest generation of Accuray's CyberKnife software made its debut at the 60th annual ASTRO meeting in San Antonio, Texas, alongside the addition of real-time motion synchronization technology for its Radixact System.
A software upgrade for treatment planning, the CyberKnife VOLO Optimizer enables clinicians to design optimal plans and deliver treatment to patients at faster rates, allowing them to increase the throughput and number of patients they treat.
"From a planning perspective, any treatment planner, no matter their skill level, can now create an optimal plan for the CyberKnife System, using the new CyberKnife VOLO Optimizer, in literally seconds or minutes as opposed to what could have been several hours," Birgit Fleurent, chief marketing officer for Accuray, told HCB News. "They are also able to deliver treatment to a patient at least 40 percent faster than what they were able to do before. This really allows for optimal planning and delivery with significantly improved throughput."
The company also showcased its real-time motion synchronization solution, an add-on to the Radixact System that enables it to track tumors and accommodate their motion by adjusting the plan during delivery to ensure an optimal dose is applied to the tumor even while the patient is breathing.
"For a patient with a lung tumor, we'll be monitoring their breathing, tracking the position of the tumor and adjusting the delivery accordingly. Synchronizing the delivery to tumor motion is critically important for our customers," Dylan Casey, director of medical physics at Accuray, told HCB News. "Just as with CyberKnife now, this technology on Radixact will allow you to be able to pinpoint the beams exactly where they need to go while sparing healthy tissue, even while the tumor is moving." Synchrony technology, once cleared on Radixact, will also save time since the beam continues to treat throughout the full range of motion, unlike conventional gating-based deliveries that typically require lengthy pausing of the beam.
The technology is the same used on the CyberKnife System but is not the only solution being added to the Radixact System. Utilizing the most current CTrue IR software, Radixact will offer clinicians enhanced images with improved soft-tissue contrast and reduced noise, helping them deliver precise treatments more quickly and efficiently to a greater number of patients. The same low imaging dose and fast reconstruction times of earlier versions will remain in place.
CyberKnife VOLO Optimizer is officially launched and available for sale, as is CTrue IR. The real-time motion synchronization technology on Radixact is still pending FDA clearance and not available for sale.