Better Decisions and Precision Treatment Delivery in Surgery

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BrainLAB Enables Better Decisions and Precision Treatment Delivery in Surgery, Radiation & Chemotherapy for Clinicians and Patients at ASCO 2006

Friday June 2, 10:53 am ET

Oncologists Are Now Able to Bring Different Oncology Treatment Alternatives Together to Deliver High Standard of Treatment and Meet Individual Patient Needs

WESTCHESTER, Ill. and ATLANTA, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- BrainLAB AG, a global technology leader in the field of comprehensive therapy systems, unveiled its portfolio for clinical oncology at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Atlanta. The new BrainLAB solutions allow physicians to better understand patient information and exploit digital medical data in an unprecedented manner. In the fight against cancer, these technologies open new possibilities for the physician by truly synthesizing the entire cancer therapy process spanning diagnosis, staging, planning, treatment, and follow-up.

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According to the American Cancer Society, cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States. It estimates there will be 1.4 million new cancer cases in 2006, making the need for more advanced treatment methods greater than ever before. Oncologists are looking for tools that can help them treat each patient with greater accuracy, safety and effectiveness. The patient-specific combination of all available treatment options is believed to improve survival and quality of life. As an industry leader, BrainLAB offers physicians a variety of the most advanced tools available for treatment in the primary oncology fields.

The iPlan® software platform makes holistic patient treatment information available across all hospital departments, anywhere and anytime. Providing easy-to-use software and networking capabilities, iPlan boosts both collaboration between departments and oncology disciplines, and efficiency that results in cost savings for healthcare providers.

iPlan further allows physicians to compare and to combine the different tumor treatment options in order to better meet the specific needs of a patient's particular diagnosis. The tool enables them to gather and analyze a wide range of patient data that can then be directly used to plan and conduct a multitude of highly specialized courses of treatment. iPlan simulates alternative cancer treatment approaches such as radiotherapy, surgery or local drug delivery (chemotherapy) and helps to identify, implement and monitor the best approach for each individual patient.

For radiotherapy, Novalis® is a comprehensive treatment system that shapes beams of focused high-energy radiation from different angles to deliver non-invasive, precise radiosurgery treatments that are designed to shrink or control the growth of tumor cells of the brain, head and neck, spine, liver, lung and prostate. The system, used to treat thousands of cancer patients worldwide, offers the widest possible range of treatment options for the largest number of indications and is the only system on the market for single, multi-, hypo- and hyper-fractionation; stereotactic IMRT and both frameless and frame-based treatments.

For minimally-invasive surgery, BrainLAB offers a range of solutions including BrainSUITE® which is a fully integrated, workflow-optimized, and versatile operating room (OR). BrainSUITE combines image-guided surgery, intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), visualization and data management technology. The BrainSUITE MR or CT imaging capabilities allow surgeons to verify the complete resection of a tumor before finalizing the operation, and to identify and monitor critical structures.

"Due to increased navigation accuracy, BrainSUITE greatly decreases the need for re-operation and the occurrence of post-operative complications," said Dr. Ganslandt, Neurosurgeon at the University Hospital Erlangen, Germany. "Data is easily and quickly gathered with BrainSUITE and can then be used in planning subsequent Novalis radiotherapy treatments, which may be required to eradicate any residual tumor traces. BrainLAB solutions truly provide a fully integrated toolbox allowing a more optimized treatment mix for the individual patient."

In the field of chemotherapy, BrainLAB has opened a new avenue for drug delivery to the brain with the recent unveiling of iPlan Flow. For the first time in neurosurgery, this new software enables targeted medication delivery for the treatment of brain tumors and hence providing physicians with the possibility of achieving safer and more effective treatments. iPlan Flow uses magnetic resonance imaging to render an individual three-dimensional map of the patient's brain in order to assess where and how medications need to be infused in order to reach specific cells within the brain.

"BrainLAB has evolved and advanced its technologies to set the pace within the changing needs of the market place. Our solutions address the full oncology spectrum, including various treatment modalities. We strive to provide physicians with greater accuracy, higher confidence, and most importantly, improved clinical outcomes," said Jean Hooks, General Manager Oncology Solutions, BrainLAB AG.

For more information about BrainLAB oncology-focused solutions, visit BrainLAB at ASCO 2006 at booth #1741.

About BrainLAB

BrainLAB, a privately held company headquartered in Munich, Germany, was founded in 1989 and is specialized in the development, manufacture, and marketing of medical technology for radiosurgery / radiotherapy, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and ENT. Among the products developed by BrainLAB are software and hardware components for image-guided surgery and radiotherapy as well as integrated systems for stereotactic radiosurgery. With around 2,280 systems installed in over 65 countries, BrainLAB is among the market leaders in image-guided medical technology. BrainLAB today employs around 740 people worldwide and has 15 offices across Europe, Asia, North and South America and Australia.

For more information, visit BrainLAB at http://www.brainlab.com .