CLEVELAND, Oct. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ViewRay, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRAY) today announced highlights from its investor & analyst meeting during the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Antonio, TX. The meeting featured presentations highlighting clinical experiences with the MRIdian System from leading radiation oncologists at the Moffitt Cancer Center and David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

A presentation by Louis B. Harrison, M.D., FASTRO, Chair and Senior Member, Department of Radiation Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center, highlighted the opportunity for MRI-guided radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer and its potential contribution to personalizing radiation therapy including emerging areas of interest such as optimization of treatment through an adaptive therapy loop and diffusion weighted imaging to predict tumor response.

"With MRI-guidance and the ability to adjust dosing during treatment, physicians now have the unmatched ability to personalize and adapt radiotherapy to deliver the highest biologically effective dose to patients while sparing healthy tissue and critical organs," said Dr. Harrison. "We believe that such an approach has significant potential to improve patient outcomes, especially in cancer than has been historically difficult to treat."
A second presentation given by Michael L. Steinberg, M.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, focused on the significantly improved visualization that is possible with MRI-guidance compared to cone-beam CT and the ability to observe and manage motion in real-time when treating tumors in challenging areas such as the prostate and lung. He highlighted the value of adaptive therapy done in real-time, which takes into account daily anatomical changes and allows for both plan adaptation and re-optimization, versus off-line, which relies on images that are days to weeks old and thus assumes the anatomical position of both the tumor and surrounding organs are exactly the same. He stressed the importance of adaptive therapy in managing movement and deformation of the tumor and nearby organs at risk, allowing for further dose escalation.

Dr. Steinberg also discussed the comparable overall cost of MRI-guided radiotherapy in comparison to CT-guided radiotherapy, citing the potential for further savings with MRI-guided radiotherapy through fraction reduction enabled by its increased precision and the potential to eliminate CT simulation by using MR simulation only. He also highlighted opportunities for improvements in value-based metrics with MRI-guided radiotherapy such as improved outcomes and lower associated healthcare costs, plus shortened treatment durations and the avoidance of invasive fiducial placement procedures for patients.

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