University of Virginia Cancer Center commences patient treatment with the TomoDirect delivery mode

TomoTherapy Incorporated (NASDAQ: TOMO) announced today that the first patients are now being treated with the TomoDirect™ radiation therapy delivery mode at the University of Virginia Cancer Center. The addition of the TomoDirect modality to the TomoTherapy® platform gives clinicians an efficient new option that expands their ability to fight cancer.

TomoDirect is a non-rotational delivery mode developed as a clinical complement to the TomoHelical™ continuous 360-degree delivery mode. The TomoDirect delivery option enables users to quickly plan and deliver advanced TomoTherapy(SM) radiation treatments with a series of linear beam paths, rather than a single helical delivery path.

With the TomoDirect mode, clinicians can choose two or more discrete angles for optimal target coverage and define a modulation level -- or opt for tissue-compensated 3D conformal delivery -- based on specific patient therapy goals. Planning and treatment times are significantly reduced due to the use of far fewer treatment beams, with planning taking as little as 10 minutes and delivery as little as two minutes.

"The combination of TomoDirect and TomoHelical delivery modes provides physicians with a broad spectrum of highly conformal image-guided treatment strategies to match the best technique to our patients' needs," said Paul W. Read, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Virginia. "TomoDirect offers static field 3D and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) options that may provide superior dosimetry to superficial tumors, such as breast cancer. The 3D delivery capabilities essentially take the TomoTherapy system from one that is a highly specialized IMRT device to a multifunctional system capable of treating almost every patient."

TomoDirect and TomoHelical delivery modes both utilize the same binary multi-leaf collimator and CT-style gantry technology unique to the TomoTherapy platform. As with the TomoHelical mode, the treatment couch passes through the bore of the TomoTherapy system during a TomoDirect delivery. This makes it possible for users to treat a target volume up to 160 cm in length, with no need to reposition the patient, and no field junctioning required.

Clinicians at the University of Virginia initially will be using the TomoDirect delivery mode to treat patients with breast cancer, and for palliative care. According to Dr. Read, "As experience continues to show us the clinical benefits of TomoDirect, I'm confident in its expanded application to additional types of disease."