Elekta’s Leksell Gamma Knife radiosurgery system reaches milestone

Elekta, a radiation therapy technology company based out of Stockholm, Sweden, announced this week that its Leksell Gamma Knife radiosurgery system passed a significant milestone: it has been used in the treatment of more than one million patients.

“Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery has evolved from a truly disruptive technological innovation to a mainstay of modern radiation surgery and neurosurgery and it has become the most clinically proven and comprehensively studied stereotactic radiosurgery platform in history,” Laurent Leksell, PhD, Elekta founder and chairman of the board, said in a prepared statement. “We are grateful to the dedication and innovation demonstrated by our global clinical partners and collaborators who have been instrumental in helping us continue to improve Gamma Knife technology to better address the needs of brain tumor patients and clinicians.”

“Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a proven approach that has helped us resolve complex brain lesions, vascular complications and other neurological abnormalities, many of which were previously thought to be inoperable,” Jean Regis, MD, neurosurgeon and Gamma Knife program director at University Hospital La Timone in Marseille, France, who has performed more than 16,000 Gamma Knife procedures, said in the same statement. “Over the past four decades, we’ve established a wide body of clinical evidence supporting Gamma Knife radiosurgery in the treatment of diverse brain and central nervous system pathologies, and in my experience, this is an attractive option for patients and clinicians, enabling a significant reduction in radiation exposure to healthy tissue and a negligible post-procedural convalescence period where the typical patient can usually leave the hospital within an hour.”

Previous Radiology Business coverage of Elekta can be read here and here.