Accuray and Samsung NeuroLogica Collaborate to Advance Volumetric Imaging for CyberKnife Platform
Accuray has entered into agreements with Samsung HME America, doing business as NeuroLogica, to pursue advanced volumetric imaging capabilities for the CyberKnife System. The announcement coincides with the American Society of Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting in Boston, where the companies are highlighting their collaboration. The collaboration reflects Accuray’s strategy to address customer priorities through targeted partnerships that bring together complementary expertise.
Accuray customers have consistently identified imaging capabilities that enhance treatment efficiency and informed decision-making as important priorities. Through this collaboration, Samsung NeuroLogica’s experience in mobile computed tomography (CT) and volumetric imaging will be coupled with Accuray’s expertise in precision treatment delivery, robotic radiosurgery, and motion management.
Steve La Neve, President and Chief Executive Officer of Accuray, said when he joined the company, he spoke about the importance of bringing meaningful innovation to customers with greater focus and speed. La Neve noted that this requires clarity about where Accuray should lead, where it should collaborate, and how it translates customer priorities into action, and that the collaboration with Samsung NeuroLogica reflects that approach by bringing together complementary expertise to pursue opportunities expected to address important customer and patient needs.
Professor Nicholas van As, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Chief Investigator of the PACE trials, said the clinical community has long been interested in what volumetric imaging could add to CyberKnife’s non-coplanar treatment delivery and real-time motion management. Van As noted that seeing the target and surrounding anatomy together at the time of treatment could help clinicians make more informed decisions for each patient, and that looking further ahead, this could open new possibilities for adapting treatment to the patient’s anatomy of the day alongside real-time motion management during delivery, adding that The Royal Marsden is the first center worldwide to participate in the collaboration.
Jonathan Lischalk, MD, Clinical Director of Radiosurgery at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, said the potential of volumetric imaging alongside robotic radiosurgery extends across thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic malignancies. Lischalk noted that for clinicians treating lung, pancreatic, and prostate cancers, understanding the relationship between the target and nearby healthy organs at the time of treatment is central to the decisions they make, and that exploring how additional imaging information could complement CyberKnife’s non-coplanar delivery and real-time motion management is an exciting direction.
Boris Geyzer, Head of Business for Mobile CT at Samsung HME America, said the team has spent years developing mobile CT to bring imaging to the patient. Geyzer noted that the discussion with Accuray begins with a practical clinical need for better visualization of anatomy in the treatment room, and that by bringing together Samsung NeuroLogica’s deep experience in mobile CT with Accuray’s precision treatment-delivery expertise, the companies believe they can facilitate use of volumetric imaging to address meaningful needs in the treatment room. The collaboration will progress through phased development activities as the companies evaluate technical, clinical, and commercial opportunities, and no commercial product offering has been announced.
