U.K. Center Combines Elekta's Agility Beam-shaping Solution with Fast VMAT Delivery to Significantly Cut Cancer Patients' Radiotherapy Treatment Time

U.K. Center Combines Elekta's Agility Beam-shaping Solution with Fast VMAT Delivery to Significantly Cut Cancer Patients' Radiotherapy Treatment Time PR Newswire MIDDLESBROUGH, England, Sept. 10, 2012 - With Photo - Agility / VMAT at The James Cook University Hospital demonstrates nearly 41 percent reduction in beam delivery time MIDDLESBROUGH, England, Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Less than three months after beginning clinical use of their Elekta Agility™* 160-leaf multi-leaf collimator (MLC), physicians at The James Cook University Hospital have achieved another benchmark – their first use of Agility to deliver radiation therapy employing Elekta's Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT). The ability to accelerate both beam shaping and beam delivery with Agility and VMAT cut 57 seconds off the beam delivery time of the first patient, a 61-year-old male with prostate cancer. Using twice the number of leaves typical of many standard MLC's, Agility precisely sculpts delivered radiation to the distinctive contours of the tumor, while reducing the risk of exposure to healthy normal tissues. Agility also includes ultra- fast leaf movements – twice as fast as other MLCs commonly used in the industry. Agility complements rapid beam delivery techniques, such as VMAT, in which single or multiple radiation beams sweep in one or more uninterrupted arcs around the patient, reducing treatment times significantly.