World’s first Cesium-131 lung implants performed

IsoRay, Inc. (Amex: ISR) announced today that starting on August 12, 2009, Dr. Bhupesh Parashar from the Department of Radiation Oncology, and Dr. Nasser Altorki of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center performed the world’s first Cesium-131 lung implants.

Four Cesium-131 lung implants were performed at Weill Cornell Medical Center utilizing a wedge resection technique as a part of the surgical treatment.

Cesium-131 was chosen based on the short half life and higher dose rate. The short half life allows 99.8% of the treatment dose to be delivered by the time the sutures and mesh dissolve unlike other isotopes used in this procedure.

Dr. Parashar stated, “Our patients tolerated the procedure well and have had no evidence of cancer recurrence or any side effects that can be attributed to the Cesium-131 seed implants as of the last follow-up visits.”

Until now clinical experience with Cesium-131 has been focused on prostate cancer and ocular melanoma. However, Cesium-131 has been cleared by the FDA for use in the treatment of malignant disease (e.g., prostate, ocular melanoma, head and neck, lung, brain, breast, etc.) and may be used in surface, interstitial, and intracavitary applications for tumors with known radiosensitivity.

Dr. Dattatreyudu Nori and Dr. Paul Lee at NYHQ performed an additional Cs-131 implant for a pancoast tumor (a type of lung cancer) after surgical resection of the tumor.

Dwight Babcock, IsoRay's CEO, stated, “We feel that Cesium-131 has properties that uniquely position it to be the isotope of choice in many cancers beyond the prostate. Its short half life lends itself to delivering the dose quickly using materials meant to dissolve in the body, and Cesium-131 has uniform and symmetrical radiation penetration for a more homogeneous implant. This allows physicians to be confident that their intended dose was delivered to the areas of concern. Because of the positive response from these early patients, IsoRay is immediately initiating a clinical trial using Cs-131 for Stage I non-small lung cancers (NSCLC).”