HEALTH AND BEAUTY CLOSE-UP-23 September 2008-300 Attend TomoTherapy's Advanced Clinical Solutions Symposium(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com

More than 300 members of Europe's radiation oncology community attended a TomoTherapy focused symposium on Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Gothenburg,

In a release, the company noted:

The Advanced Clinical Solutions Symposium was hosted by TomoTherapy, maker of the Hi-Art treatment system, and held during the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) annual meeting. Four eminent clinical experts, including ESTRO president Prof. Vincent Gregoire, discussed the clinical benefits and broadened patient treatment options made possible by TomoTherapy's radiation therapy platform.

Prof. Gregoire, radiation oncologist, UCL St-Luc University Hospital, Belgium, spoke on the use of TomoTherapy for adaptive planning in head and neck cancer treatments.

"Using different imaging protocols, (the Hi-Art system's) daily megavoltage CT imaging allows us to assess patterns of systematic and random deviations in head and neck cancer patients, and allow the repositioning of the patients before treatment," said Prof. Gregoire. "Ultimately it should allow recalculation and adaptation of the dose distribution that should be delivered to fulfill the plan constraints."

Prof. Dr. med. Klaus Herfarth, vice chairman, department of Radiation Oncology, University Clinic Heidelberg, Germany, discussed how TomoTherapy technology broadens radiation therapy's reach for large and complex cancer cases: "The TomoTherapy Hi-Art system extends and improves the oncological treatment range. We at Heidelberg are excited to continue exploring the clinical possibilities with TomoTherapy."

Prof. Marc-Andre Mahe, M.D, Ph.D., chief radiation oncologist, Centre Rene Gauducheau, Nantes, France, presented on his center's overall clinical experience with the Hi-Art system, stating, "We have evaluated TomoTherapy with comparative treatments for large and complex volumes and found dosimetric benefit for patients in these cases. We are investigating improvements in outcomes for these patients."

Prof. Dr. Dirk Verellen, chief medical physicist, the Oncologic Center at Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, discussed his research experience with TomoDirect, a new discrete-angle delivery mode for the Hi-Art system introduced at ESTRO.

According to Prof. Dr. Verellen, "TomoDirect shows great potential for delivering efficient breast treatments and extending the clinical efficiency of the TomoTherapy Hi-Art system. TomoDirect also significantly reduces planning time for these treatments and, in this mode, we expect beam-on time for simple cases to be equivalent to that of conventional linear accelerators."

TomoDirect will be introduced to the United States radiation oncology community at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting this week in Boston.

Said Fred Robertson, M.D., CEO of TomoTherapy: "The ESTRO introduction of TomoDirect was a great success. We believe that the many customers who took time to learn about this groundbreaking technology left with a better understanding of TomoTherapy's distinct technological edge in meeting more radiotherapy needs, today and for years to come. We look forward to repeating this success at ASTRO."

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