Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc., a developer of real-time localization technology used for the precise tracking of tumor targets, today announced Calypso’s real-time tracking technology is included in 36 scientific presentations and posters at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), now underway at McCormick Place in Chicago. These studies highlight the potential applications of the technology and the benefits associated with real-time tracking of the prostate, for which the Calypso® System is currently commercially available.
The topics of prostate-related studies include prostate SBRT, prone prostate treatment, workflow efficiency, and dose escalation. Studies of investigational applications, such as high-velocity pancreatic and lung tumors, will also be presented. Calypso is exhibiting during this conference at booth 1231 and Calypso Systems will also be displayed in collaboration with Siemens Healthcare at booth 1829 and Varian Medical Systems at booth 2229.
According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the leading cancer in men in the United States with 192,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The prostate is also the most common target for radiation therapy in the body. Since the radiation beam is more precisely focused on the tumor target, Calypso’s technology allows clinicians to more tightly contour the radiation dose to the prostate and minimize unwanted dose to adjacent healthy tissues.
“Calypso allows us to track the position of the prostate during prolonged, high-dose SBRT treatments and provides the flexibility to stop the treatment if the prostate moves outside the intended field of radiation,” said Constantine Mantz, M.D., at 21st Century Oncology in Cape Coral, Florida. “Without Calypso, we are really just flying blind.”
In addition to prostate-related studies, data is being presented from an investigational study demonstrating the utility of the Calypso System in tracking tumor movement in the canine lung.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people die from lung cancer than any other cancer type. In 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are currently available, lung cancer accounted for more deaths than breast, prostate, and colon cancers combined. In that year, 196,687 people were diagnosed with lung cancer and 159,217 people died from the disease.
“The lung often undergoes dramatic movement and distortion during normal respiration, sighing, and coughing, making targeting an extremely complicated task to handle,” said Martin Mayse, M.D., an interventional pulmonologist at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and an investigator on the study. “With the Calypso System, we will have real-time data that tells us exactly what is going on while the patient is breathing. We will not have to make assumptions anymore.”
“The research we have conducted clearly shows that the bronchoscopic insertion of an anchored transponder is not only safe, but also does not migrate,” said Parag Parikh, M.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology and biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. “This opens up the use of electromagnetic tracking for lung tumors.”
The Calypso System will be the topic of several scientific sessions, including an independent investigation conducted at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg in which researchers demonstrated real-time multi-leaf collimator tracking, as well as a study conducted at Stanford University demonstrating Calypso-guided dynamic multi-leaf collimator (DMLC) target tracking with Intensity Modulated Arc Therapy (IMAT). Dose distributions to moving targets with DMLC tracking were superior to those without tracking.
“We continue to be encouraged with a growing body of research that suggests promise in areas of the body that have proved difficult to treat effectively,” said Eric R. Meier, president and chief executive officer of Calypso Medical. “The ability to monitor tumor motion and automatically adapt treatment may lead to improved treatment accuracy and delivery.”
Information about the oral presentations featuring Calypso technology referenced in this news release is listed below: