ST. PETERSBURG RU — Tuesday, February 9, 2016 -- Treating three to five patients per day throughout a seven-day work week, the Diagnostic and Treatment Center at the International Institute of Biological Systems is among the most prolific Gamma Knife centers in Eurasia. In 2015, the center treated a record 1,235 patients suffering from brain tumors and other intracranial disorders – 158 in December alone – with the Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™ radiosurgery system it installed in late 2014. The clinic, which began treating with an earlier Gamma Knife model in 2009, has broken its “patients treated” record every year since then.

“We could easily treat 2,000 patient each year with Perfexion if there were higher federal subsidies for Gamma Knife radiosurgery. Since patients pay out-of-pocket, with possibly some help from their municipal government, demand is still limited,” explains Arkadi Stolpner, MD, President of the Diagnostic and Treatment Center, which owns one of the three active Gamma Knife systems in Russia. “Perfexion is a great system that has helped us treat more patients.”

“According to a Lancet study, cancer is the second most common cause of death in Russia, contributing to 15 percent of annual national mortality,” says Francois Pointurier, Senior Vice President, Region Europe & AFLAME. “Elekta is very proud to be able to support Dr. Stolpner and his center in challenging these statistics and improving the lives of patients with brain disease.”

Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a gentler alternative to traditional brain surgery for illnesses such as metastatic disease – cancer that has traveled to the brain from elsewhere in the body. Leksell Gamma Knife technology delivers up to thousands of low-intensity radiation beams to one or more targets in a single session. Perfexion, equipped with an automated multisource collimator, provides even greater speed and ease of use than previous models, especially for treating multiple metastases.

Patients with one or more metastases (mets) represent about one-third of the St. Petersburg center’s case volume. Multiple mets is an ideal indication for the Perfexion system, which enables rapid treatment of several lesions in a single session.

“Many of the multiple mets patients have as many as 10 lesions, which is no problem for Perfexion to treat in one session,” notes Dr. Stolpner. “We have other systems for precise radiation therapy in the brain and the body, but when it comes radiosurgery in the brain, we prefer Perfexion for the highest precision and efficiency.”

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