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Stock is back to 7+... about time for ET's HOG mgmt to NOSE DEEP into the ARAY TROUGH and begin to feed until the PPS is back to 4!
http://www.thejudgingconnection.com/pdfs/Swine_Breeds.pdf
In my imaginings, ARAY's THOMSON HOGS strongly resemble ol' Chester White chowing down!
Avg Vol (3 month)3: 304,165
Avg Vol (10 day)3: 253,612
Shares Outstanding5: 58.41M
Float: 40.94M
% Held by Insiders1: 20.44%
% Held by Institutions1: 54.80%
Shares Short (as of Jan 13, 2012)3: 2.24M
Short Ratio (as of Jan 13, 2012)3: 7.80
Short % of Float (as of Jan 13, 2012)3: 4.20%
Shares Short (prior month)3: 2.21M
shorts driving ARAY up....
Does ANYONE really care so long as the GREEDY EUAN THOMSON HOGS MGMT TEAM keeps stealing ALL the PROFITS every quarter...
so shareholders see NO GAIN IN VALUE for YEARS?
ARAY $4.18
Accuray (ARAY) announced today that 23 medical centers have installed both a CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System and a TomoTherapy System.
$ARAY related news.Growing Safety Concerns Weigh on Medical Equipment and Supplies Sector
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Growing-Safety-Concerns-Weigh-iw-816180413.html?x=0
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68281577
You've got a handle on the ARAY management skim-off-scam of shareholder value!
Ok been reading up on Accuray so I wanted to see what you meant by your comment. There is a lot of exercise of options done lately (9/15, 8/24...) than sales by the same two guys. So if I am understanding this, the exercise of options is aquiring shares from the company at the low price, .75 to 2.50, than sales back to the market at lets say 4 to 5 bucks? Or am I totally off here? Thanks in advance.
Hmm ya Im new to Accuray just caught it on a screener so was interested whats going on here after the 16% drop yesterday.
Looks like it is just another insider
Feeding from the shareholder trough.
surf are you invested here? if so what do you think with the drop today, overeaction?
Array BioPharma to Present at the Stifel Nicolaus Healthcare Conference and the Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference
Press Release Source: Array BioPharma Inc. On Monday August 29, 2011, 6:01 pm EDT
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Array BioPharma Inc. (Nasdaq:ARRY - News) today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Robert E. Conway, will speak at the Stifel Nicolaus Healthcare Conference and the Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference. The public is welcome to participate in the conferences through webcasts on the Array BioPharma website.
Event:
Stifel Nicolaus Healthcare Conference
Presenter:
Robert E. Conway, Chief Executive Officer, Array BioPharma
Date:
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Time:
11:30 a.m. Eastern Time
Location:
Four Seasons, Boston, MA
Webcast:
www.arraybiopharma.com
Event:
Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference
Presenter:
Robert E. Conway, Chief Executive Officer, Array BioPharma
Date:
Monday, September 12, 2011
Time:
10:50 a.m. Eastern Time
Location:
The Waldorf=Astoria, New York, NY
Webcast:
www.arraybiopharma.com
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Array-BioPharma-to-Present-at-bw-2322579999.html?x=0&.v=2
8:31AM Accuray announced new clinical data highlighting the ability of its CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System and its TomoTherapy Radiation Therapy System to treat a wide range of patients with lung cancer and lung metastases (ARAY) 8.26 : Co announced new clinical data highlighting the ability of its CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System and its TomoTherapy Radiation Therapy System to treat a wide range of patients with lung cancer and lung metastases. The new outcome data was presented at the 14th World Conference on Lung Cancer, the leading global forum for lung cancer and thoracic oncology research and practice.
such a great product what a shame it can't get better as investment goes.
ARAY slide back down continues
under the skilled leadership and astute decisions of CEO Euan Thomson and his team!
Grant I too feel it was a mistake and killed some future profits and killed the stocks good run upwards .
I was excited bout aray until this.
my concerns are still there now.
TomoTherapy, James River: Small-Cap Winners
By Shanthi Bharatwaj 03/07/11 - 01:50 PM EST
Stock quotes in this article:TOMO, JRCC, VRUS, LEI, AVL, REE, GPL
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- TomoTherapy(TOMO) was leading the gains among small-cap stocks Monday afternoon, after Accuray(ARAY_) said it will buy the radiation firm for $277 million in cash and stock.
More on Small Caps
, a 31% premium to its previous closing price. TomoTherapy shareholders would receive $3.15 in cash and 0.1648 shares of Accuray common stock for each TomoTherapy share they hold.
Shares were soaring 24% to $4.56. Volumes jumped to 15 million shares.
IDIOTIC EUAN & his team sink to new low acquiring TOMO...
already well on its way to being USELESS in the RT industry!
no doubt about that... BLNKF is slow and steady... but seems always BIASED upward!
More importantly, management there is not the greedy thieves found in ARAY mgmt...
that team is willing to prosper WITH shareholders, not instead of shareholders with a "GET MY $$$$ FIRST" attitude like Euan Thompson and his gang of pocket-liners!
one day grant blinkx will be ten too!
Still pinching myself every morning that ARAY
HOLDS above 10! LOL
I'm having a hard time adjusting to the fact that
GREEDY ARAY MGMT did not STEAL all the profits yet again!
As much as ARAY has increased in the last few weeks, I have to wonder where the ARAY PPS would be if EUAN's PIG PARTY had ended many quarters back!
Hey, EUAN... ya greedy SOB... am I dreaming? Will the ARAY shareholder rip-off crank back up next quarter? Perhaps, if you are now a REFORMED PIG TROUGH GOURMAND, you ought to issue a statement declaring the new era at ARAY where all of the quarterly profits will NOT be stolen every 3 months!
plfm... I've heard of them... but have not looked too closely at their pipeline, etc.
The time waiting can be very IFFY for pharmas... CBST was one that ran to 40 on speculation of a wonder antibiotic "soon" to be approved... has taken forever to establish a market. Now its only in the low 20s last I looked some months ago... but it was/is(?) only a one-drug company.
I'll check into GERN... always better IF they have a number of products in the pipeline being developed and tested.
As for ARAY... maybe the company has reached a point of critical mass for its growth into the future. So many reasons that it ought to prove superior to other modalities for any given treatment protocol. And cheaper overall for insurors! I'd expect private insurors to realize this & PUSH for adoption of CK... but the gub-ment is a dinosaur, brain the size of a peach right above its behind!
Unfortunately, looks like FDA approval will be the KEY to approval for insurance reimbursements easing. ARAY should move higher with each cancer protocol that gets approval! At least we have a start with lung cancer.
I have NOT checked recently into the share structure of ARAY compared to ISRG... clearly IMO ARAY mgmt is INFERIOR to ISRG mgmt... but ISRG has finally become credible enough to maintain its PPS above 200 even through the recent bad market.
I'm hopeful that one day ARAY will get above 100 to stay! Although it may have a few more growing pain years to overcome.
grant this is great news and a great run but I paid over ten for each of my shares long ago.
grant a article on GERN on the other day said that if he could only on one stock long term it would be GERN heard of them ?
GERN has hesc tons of patents and first human trials for spinal cord injury .
Huge cancer drug pipeline .
the downfall of them is its gonna take along time to get trails done along time but its cheap now if you can wait that long..
Accuray records 2Q profit, shares jump; over $9.00 almost 52 weeks high level on earnings report!
Accuray records unexpected 2nd-quarter profit on lower costs, shares surge
ap
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
ARAY 9.24 +2.38
\
On Friday January 28, 2011, 1:12 pm EST
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) -- Medical radiation equipment maker Accuray Inc. on Friday recorded a fiscal 2011 second-quarter profit on lower costs and reported a strong backlog of orders.
The profit was not expected by Wall Street and shares of Accuray rose $1.98, or 29 percent, to $8.84 in afternoon trading. The stock earlier reached a 52-week high of $8.95.
Accuray makes the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System, which it describes as the world's only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body non-invasively.
It said its total backlog of orders for systems and services rose 26 percent to $410 million at the end of the latest quarter from the year-ago period.
The company earned just under $4.1 million, or 7 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.2 million, or 2 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue fell 5 percent to $54.2 million from $57.3 million. The quarter ended on Dec. 31.
IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!! Up 2+ (30+%)
on good earnings!
Now we have to HOPE EUAN-THE-HOG and his greedy management PIGS don't belly up to the feed trough and HOG all the earnings ONE MORE TIME!
Which would be them just doing BUSINESS as usual (on the shareholders)!
grant thanks for such an informative post as you always do it makes me feel better that you still have high hopes for ARAY as we have held it seems like forever. Also still glad you are holding blinkx as they are well on their way to getting into IPTV and smart phones and still growing the web site without a globial push yet .
I can't help but to wonder why blinkx recently raised 26 million dollars they now have 40 million in cash no debt I am lookin for blinkx to be buying another company out IMO and possibly one on the nasdaq as some small caps are still very cheap .
I also would like you to look at IDCC i know they are almost fifty but they simply own 17,000 patents for cell phones which they have 50% of 3 G cell phones pays them fees if they get nokia then make that 75% some say they are on nokias heels alot of people shorting idcc bc of nokia lawsuit if idcc wins shorts will be buying it up fast to cover and it is said rumored if you will to be up to 500 million dollars plus intrest if they don't settle outta court .
I will look at your LNGT. thanks for the heads up on that one.
I am very limited for funds as my hours at work have been cut.
But that gives me more time to chat with you..
haha Now lets make some money fast and lots of it!!
plfm... IMO ARAY's management ought to face a firing squad for stealing from shareholders!
In the recent years a drama has unfolded that I find to be very curious... and the management of ARAY might have screwed themselves by their practices that have kept the stock price so stagnant at 6-8.
First, Dr. ADLER (the inventor of CK) left ARAY in a dispute with management... he himself said little publicly, but his wife said enough that it was obviously NOT a friendly split. After an interim period, it appears that Dr. Adler has landed at Varian in some capacity.
Perhaps he will coinvince VARIAN to BUY ARAY.
Varian has the money to do so & if they finally are ready to admit that CK IS SUPERIOR to their radiation sprayers that are less beneficial (IF NOT outright harmful to patients IMO) in treating cancer.
Recent FDA approval for lung cancer and the release of the prostate data with treatment/cure results equal to or better than other modalities... and minimal negative side effects... means that ARAY is very close to achieving full legitimacy for its cancer treatment protocols! This is going to be a terrible blow to the other competitive(?) treatment choices because CK is so much more cost effective without the invasive trauma of surgeries!
Yes... I still own ARAY shares and hope to see CK become so successful that ARAY is a valuable HOLD in my portfolio... might even reach the 50-100 that I'd originally hoped it would do years ago when I found it dropping downward from the IPO frenzy.
ISRG took a long time before it reached this pinnalce that it enjoys... it has been some time since its last retreats back to the low 100s. Those low swings are likely a thing of the past... but it just seems to hover from high 200s to mid-300s. Don't know if ISRG has much of a dividend, but growth and price appreciation seem to have settled into the PPS into a trading range. IOW ISRG is possibly (with little or no dividend) a cash cow stock that can now be bought when it drops into the 200s and sold on the runs into the 300s. JMO on ISRG of course, but it is how I've played it lately. I do run the risk that it will surge way away from me during the time I do not hold it.
Finally... YES I am still holding BLNKF (thanks to you... should have listened a lot earlier than I did) and expect it to be worth HOLDING for a long time to come... I'll be adding more whenever I can if there isn't something more compelling.
FWIW... this past week LNGT announced sales of its DazerLaser to Lehigh Valley Healthcare Network. Medical facility security is woefully disregarded and often inadequate. DL is cost effective & gives hospital security a very effective violence control device that minimizes the dangers that could be encountered there. I am surprised that this sale happened well before any border security or military sales.
Palm Bay (FL) PD became the first announced buyer of DL when it bought 5 DLs a few weeks ago for field trial and tactics development. Of interest is that PBPD also was the first buyer of TASER when it first went to market. (General Dynamics assisted TASR bringing product to markets.)
General Dynamics has been displaying LNGT's DazerLaser in its booths at trade shows for almost a year now... & GD's ATP facility in Charlotte, NC, will be manufacturing DLs (for LNGT) when full commercial production begins. I find this GD linkage between the two products early in their marketing to be compelling and fascinating!
Oh, BTW, TASR was trading at .38 when GD came along to give it a boost into markets with GD sponsorship... 18 months later TASR was in the mid-20s. Compelling & fascinating!
grant ISRG reported huge profits while ARAY which has a great robot for cancer can't seem to get the ball rolling in the right direction what gives is it the mgnt of the company being greedy ?
Also do you still hold shares of ARAY .
Also hope you still have some blinkx stock too.
Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the company 510(k) clearance to market Lung Optimized Treatment, a new component of the CyberKnife® VSI™ System. The 510(k) clearance enables Accuray to provide physicians with greater flexibility in delivering radiosurgery treatments to patients with lung cancer, the most common and deadly cancer worldwide.
Recent studies have found radiosurgery to be an effective treatment option for medically inoperable lung cancer patients as it provides good local control and survival rates. Treating these tumors is particularly complex due to movement with respiration and nearby critical structures. This is especially the case for central and chest wall tumors, which are located in close proximity to such critical anatomical structures.
Lung Optimized Treatment offers the accuracy and steep dose fall off required to safely treat lung tumors, even those close to such critical structures. Simulation and comparison workflows, combined with unique tracking modes, allow the clinician to select from multiple, non-invasive options, providing lung SBRT patients
the optimal non-invasive treatment option, regardless of tumor location.
"Lung Optimized Treatment is a new tool we developed to meet the clinical demand for more flexibility in treating lung cancer patients with radiosurgery and the desire to move away from reliance on fiducial markers," said Chris A. Raanes, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Accuray. "This new technology
enables treatments throughout the lung without a single incision, all while safeguarding healthy tissue and structures around the tumor to ensure they are not damaged by radiation."
Because fiducial implantation is no longer required, CyberKnife radiosurgery with Lung Optimized Treatment offers a completely non-invasive option, which is particularly important for medically or surgically inoperable patients. This means patients who are not candidates for fiducial placement or physicians who choose not to implant fiducials due to the high risk of pneumothorax, now have a non-invasive alternative using the CyberKnife System's unique tracking and correction capabilities.
"With the FDA 510(k) clearance of Lung Optimized Treatment, we've taken the CyberKnife technology to new heights and enabled care for an expanded group of patients," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Accuray. "This is yet another step in our efforts to ensure physicians have access to the treatment choices necessary for their patient, based on the patient's specific needs. To this end, Accuray continues to investigate ways to improve patient care across various indications."
About the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System
The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the world's only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body non-invasively. Using continual image guidance technology and computer controlled robotic mobility, the CyberKnife System automatically tracks, detects and corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time throughout the treatment. This enables the CyberKnife System to deliver high-dose radiation with pinpoint precision, which minimizes damage to surrounding healthy tissue and eliminates the need for invasive head or body stabilization frames.
About Accuray
Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a global leader in the field of radiosurgery dedicated to providing an improved quality of life and a non-surgical treatment option for those diagnosed with cancer. Accuray develops and markets the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System, which extends the benefits of radiosurgery to include extracranial tumors, including those in the spine, lung, prostate, liver and pancreas. To date, the CyberKnife System has been used to treat more than 100,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 215 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.accuray.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Nice jump over $6.00 with FDA clearence:
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=45663798
I am still holding ARAY... but only about HALF as many as when I first got hooked by the technology.
Once I realized that mgmt was given to falsely deceiving shareholders while looting earnings every quarter, I resolved to trade it to lower my basis in ARAY.
I loved the drop to 12 back when: sold some shares at 17, bought at the drop 12+, and rode the run back to about 16 & bailed on HALF... it evened out most of my "hostage dollars" that ARAY had taken away from me when I bailed out of half my holdings after that buy-in around 12 and selling at the top of that run.
It got harder FOR ME to play the moves once it got down in the 5-7 range. I did one more trade cycle just below 7 and sold out those shares close to 8. I've been holding my core position ever since. I just could NOT convince myself to BUY ARAY again when it was under 5. Would have been a modest little gain again.
I really must get better at TA so I can play based on charts with some degree of confidence. (MY) Charting stocks is way more unreliable than charting commodities IMO.
I'm very surprised ARAY is still single digit... however, I am resolved that IF I ever have a cancer CK can treat, CyberKnife will be my choice. In fact, I almost made out a Healthcare POA to that effect... but my attorney convinced me to hold off on that so long as my spouse and I are of sound mind... LOL... that is an uncertain time span for sure!
I have not looked at any of the other plays you mentioned in your post...
however, blinkx convinces me I should take a close look over the weekend and get back to you. Too bad for me I did not sell HALF my ARAY and BUY blnkf at .30+ back then 2 years ago.
I did finally buy some... not enough to brag about and it was just above .50 which is NOT the gain I could have had IF I'd listened to you earlier on... still about 2x is not bad.
Last I knew, though, being up 4x was better than 2x! and BOTH beat ARAY over the last 2 years!
are you into limelight ?
thats a huge field i was looking at them yesturday with the run up AKAM how are they different ?
Also looking at VHC.
VHC has 46 patents and has won a 120 million lawsuit with microsoft for infinge and microsoft not only paid but licenced with them after that and now VHC is suing NEC Cisco and Apple.
They have no debt and look good as we turn the corner to 4 g .
I still have blinkx their AGM is today I am excited .did not sell any.
I still have ARAY what a disapointment it has been great tech and no gains from it coz of mgt.
Are you still holding it too?
I think there may be much upside to TINY and WZE and ACAS all of which are trading below book.
let me know if any of them intrest you .
its always good chating with ya I hope all is going good for you in the terrible economy we have
Hi, plfm...
I think your blinkx is up a LOT since you first mentioned it to me over a year ago & looks like a winner. Quietly it has stuck to its business plan and grown nicely... which may account for why Fool is now picking up on it.
Not bad advice by Fool & no doubt blinkx meets the criteria... BUT you did find it when it was way cheaper. Hopefully you have had the patience to hang with it & even add more along the way up.
Long ago I encountered similar advice about building a Long Ball Portfolio but the advice was to spread out funds in a minimum of 10 stocks (with equal amounts invested}...
more importantly, the advisor said: Be patient with your picks (which you should believe in because you did your DD on them) & give them the time to become what you expect of them...
of course, that is the hard part because no stock (or company) executes perfectly and riding thru the stumbles can be very worrisome with small cap stocks. And some fail to deliver and end up worthless.
The temptation is to "take your loss" or "recover your money" and move on to the winning stock you think was just found. Not a good strategy because you end up with losers and forever chasing a dream that does not materialize. Better to pick carefully, write off the ones that lose... provided... you are learning the lesson well and have a couple of winners! One 10x winner out of the ten stocks is break even and serious money can be made if you can hit 2-3 winners in every set of ten stocks owned.
Over the years, I've learned to follow the advice of 10 stocks (Rule Morph #1... but seldom more than 15 & NEVER more than 20 because it is just too many to follow) & take some profits when one does run hard. I usually use some of the profits to buy a new stock for the spec portfolio & spend the rest. The rules have changed for me a bit over the years since my first 10 picks had about $1K in each pick & not all were bought right away but over time. Now I'm putting significantly more into my initial purchase of a pick (Rule Morph #2 from my initial $1K limit... from 30 years ago). And (Rule Morph #3) I'll add more to a holding IF the stock looks like it is really gonna fly hard... like LNGT is setting up to do! You ought to check out the last 5-6 PR releases on it... Dazer Laser is ready to fly and LNGT is still under a dime! General Dynamics is now the "big brother" looking out for LNGT's shareholders & will git-r-done! When GD first helped Taser along, it ran from .38 to 28 in about 18 months.
Aray is one that severely tries my patience! IMO it should have done better and at least had a run back to IPO levels by now... but mgmt is NOT good at looking out for stockholders' money invested... ARAY should some day succeed in spite of mgmt greed... but it languishes as dormant money. I'm glad I flipped it a few times for profits in the last few years. I'm now holding less of it than I did 3 years ago with less at stake.
GLTY... and I hope this does not get deleted from the board.
hi grant
here is a motely fool article mentions blinkx whats you take on it?
To maximise your chances of achieving a 10-bagger in 10 years without throwing trying to hit every single ball for six, focus on smaller companies that have:
* strong balance sheets;
* strong cash flows; and
* strong growth prospects.
One such company could be Blinkx (BLNKF - news) . According to Google Finance, this £170 million company "has an index of over 35 million hours of searchable video and more than 530 media partnerships, including national broadcasters, commercial media giants, and private video libraries".
Analysts at Daniel Stewart recently forecast 2012 revenues at Blinkx of £79.5 million and EPS of 4.5 pence, putting the company on a 2012 P/E of 13.7. This fast growing rising star of the UK internet industry is the type of company that could just turn out to be a 10-bagger in the years ahead...
from Motley Fool (via Yahoo Finance)
---------
Comment: Only a ten-bagger? Don't think so. If Blinxk comes anywhere close to achieving its potential should be much, MUCH more than that...
Might have been a fine investment
if Euan Thomson hasd not F'd it up!
Handwriting on the wall:
Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today announced that it has appointed John R. Adler, Jr., M.D., as Vice President and Chief of New Clinical Applications for the company. Dr. Adler, a renowned neurosurgeon, professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology at Stanford University, and past CEO, chairman and founder of Accuray, Inc., will be joining Varian to play a key role in guiding the development of Varian's next-generation clinical products and applications for radiosurgery and other new treatments.
"John Adler brings a unique combination of strengths to the Varian team, including expertise in radiosurgery together with an impressive record of success as a clinical researcher, innovator, and entrepreneur," said Tim Guertin, president and CEO of Varian. "He is a respected clinician who will have a strong voice in the development of Varian's next-generation surgical products."
"I welcome the opportunity to join Varian where I will have a broad technological platform and management's enthusiastic commitment to continue shaping the still-emerging field of radiosurgery and to enhance clinical offerings for radiotherapy," said Dr. Adler. "Varian is already among the leaders in radiosurgery and I am convinced that the future will bring even better technology and a broadening array of clinical applications for precision radiation that can attack more and more diseases and help save the lives of untold numbers of patients."
Dr. Adler, who joins Varian effective April 5, will report to Guertin and be a member of the CEO staff. He will represent Varian at medical meetings and partner with radiation oncologists and surgeons to develop products and clinical approaches that expand the applications for and improve the outcomes of radiosurgery. His responsibilities include working with the medical community to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Varian clinical products through best-in-class designs, techniques, and processes.
Varian has installed more than 170 dedicated surgical units and another 1,000 units capable of both radiotherapy and radiosurgery among more than 5,800 installations operating around the world.
Dr. Adler, 55, was the Founder, CEO, Chief Medical Officer, Chairman and Board Member for Accuray (Nasdaq: ARAY), where he served from 1991 until 2009. He also served as a Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology at Stanford University from 1987 through 2010. In his most recent position at Stanford, Dr. Adler served as the Dorothy and TK Chan Professor of Neurosurgery. Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Adler did a neurosurgical residency at the Brigham & Women's, Children's and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston. His training included a one year fellowship with Lars Leksell at the Karolinska Institute, the father of radiosurgery.
He serves on the editorial boards of the Neurosurgery, Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment, Journal of Image-Guided Surgery, Chinese Journal of Clinical Oncology,and functions as editor in chief of peerEmed.com. Dr. Adler previously served on the editorial boards of Stroke and Journal of Radiosurgery.
Dr. Adler is currently president-emeritus and chairman of the CyberKnife Society, an organization he founded, and a member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Western Neurosurgical Society, the John W. Hanbery Society, the International Society of Stereotactic Radiosurgery, and the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.
Dr. Adler graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1976 and from Harvard Medical School in 1980.
Note to editors: High resolution photos are available in the Varian online newsroom.
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,000 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 79 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com. VMS122
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Spencer Sias, (650) 424-5782
spencer.sias@varian.com
SOURCE Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
JBII... the management ARAY shoulda had!
This is an FYI item—I have no idea is this product competes with anything ARAY is doing:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Radiation-Breakthrough-Gives-prnews-3587138924.html?x=0&.v=1
World's first heart surgery using radiation
Digital Publisher of the Year | Monday 02 November 2009 | Rebecca Smith feed
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REBECCA SMITH
World's first heart surgery using radiation
A British man has become the first person in the world to undergo heart surgery using radiation.
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Published: 9:00AM GMT 02 Nov 2009
Michael Kilby, 67, was told he may only live until Christmas after doctors found a tumour inside the right chamber of his heart larger than a golf ball. It was so big it was blocking the blood flow and he was dying.
After conventional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, his last option was to try revolutionary surgery involving highly focused radiation as a 'scalpel' to cut away the tumour inside his beating heart.
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Now just 10 days later he is planning a five month trip to Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and America with his wife, Licette Gus.
The treatment is the first time the radiation scalpel, called the Cyberknife, has been used in heart surgery and doctors are confident that it could lead to new treatments for other heart conditions.
Radiation beams controlled by a robotic with an accuracy of one millimetre arm attack the tumour. It is able to take account of breathing patterns and body movements to avoid healthy tissue. Pieces of gold were attached to Mr Kilby's heart to act as an extra guide.
Mr Kilby was diagnosed with a rare cancer of the duodenum, part of the small intestine, 10 years ago which was successfully removed.
Then three years ago a secondary cancer was found in his right lung and one third of it was removed.
But then in a third blow, he began suffering severe breathlessness and a scan found a large tumour had formed inside his heart.
Surgeons at the private Harley Street Clinic in London first carried out emergency open heart surgery to try and take out as much as they could, but the tumour had burrowed into the muscle of the heart and it could not all be safely removed.
Conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy failed and the tumour began to grow again within just six weeks.
When Mr Kilby, a retired businessman from Moreton in Marsh, Glouchestershire, was about to give up and accept his fate, it was suggested he try the Cyberknife.
The technique had never been used on the heart before and because the operation was experimental Mr Kilby's health insurance would not cover it.
After consulting his wife and their three grown up children, he decided to pay the £22,000 required and the course of five treatments began.
The tumour has already shrunk by 40 per cent and is expected to shrink further over the next three to four weeks.
Mr Kilby said: "My options were to give the Cyberknife a go or I was going to die by Christmas. I talked to my wife and the children who said they did not want any inheritance so we went for it.
"I was treated for five days with each session lasting for about an hour and a half. You cannot feel anything at all, its just like radiotherapy.
"Before the Cyberknife I couldn't speak in long sentences because I would get out breath, but now I can walk a few holes of the golf course."
Nick Plowman, clinical oncologist, said: "This was an absolutely unique case. The tumour was taking up so much of the ventricle that the heart was failing in front of us. There was nowhere else to go with his treatment.
"The tumour has shrunk significantly and I expect it to shrink further in the coming weeks. It is great."
Dr John Coltart, consultant cardiologist at the Harley Street Clinic, in London, said: "Three months ago his prognosis was terrible, now he may live for a good while yet. No one had ever done this before, it was a bit of innovative thinking to give this gentleman a chance.
"All our expectations have been realised."
Dr Coltart said tumours inside the heart are extremely rare and it seems that the Cyberknife may now be the preferable way to treat them because the radiation can be targeted to such a degree that there is minimal damage to the heart muscle.
He said such tumours inside the heart are extremely rare, with probably only 40 or 50 found each year in Britain, with few being operable.
Dr Coltart said as well as opening possibilities for other heart tumours to be treated, the Cyberknife could be used in future to treat arrythymia, where the heart beats erratically or fast.
Normally a fine wire is passed into the heart to destroy the tiny piece of heart muscle that is causing the abnormal electrical pulse, but the Cyberknife could also be used to do this in a less invasive procedure, Dr Coltart said.
Very interesting... Sunday PR release! em
Just got my proxy for the annual meeting to be held on Nov. 20!
Item # 2 on the proxy statement is a chance to vote "for" of "AGAINST" the Performance Bonus Plan for the PIG TROUGH boys!
Guess how I'm voting!!!!!
Accuray reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue above analysts' expectations but projected sales for the first quarter and the fiscal 2010 below expectations. Shares of the maker of robotic surgery systems fell 10% to $6.75 in late trading.
Got my class action lawsuit participant
paperwork today from the firm filing it!
LMAO... guess that is what Euan has reaped after a few years of skewing us! LOL
Wonder how it will play out? Big refunds of the price I paid for my early shares? hehehehe... tooth fairy time!
Question is: to be... or not to be the lead plaintiff!
Says all I have to do is petition the court for the privilege(!)...
or... I can "choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member!"
Anyone thinking about becoming the lead plaintiff?
Some good PR and some bad PR since last post.
Well, management PIG's emptied the earning trough again...
PPS is not going anywhere here until that changes!
Buy something else! Technology is great... will save your life...
sucking PIG's management will suck your capital right out of your stock account!
Another Lamb's good post - "Rapid Arc"
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_(A_to_Z)/Stocks_A/threadview?m=tm&bn=51532&tid=13180&mid=13185&tof=2&rt=2&frt=2&off=1
<lamb_to_slaughter> 29-Apr-09 09:59 am
Rapid Arc's only claim is that the treatment time is faster, which may be of benefit in countries where demand for radiation far exceeds available technology (?India). It is not an issue in the US. If a patient decides on undergoing prostatectomy for prostate cancer, does he shop around for a surgeon who performs the operation the fastest? Why then radiation? A partner of mine working at a hospital that recently got a Rapid Arc told me that the plans are notably inferior to those with standard IMRT on their Varian LINACs (and the billing is inferior as well, with fewer calc, device, and dosimetry charges).
If a patient getting radiation is concerned about minimizing time spent in the radiation department, does it really matter if the treatment time is 2 minutes (RapidArc), 8 minutes (standard IMRT), or even 1 hour (CK)? Or is it more important whether 43 days of treatment are needed (RapidArc,IMRT) versus 5 days (CK)?
Rjothvas I'm sure knows that 10 yrs ago only brains were treated on the CK. Stanford has only been treating prostates for 5 yrs, and virtually everywhere else was waiting for the preliminary morbidity data to come out of Stanford using the hypofractionated prostate regimen. Given the politics, billing considerations, and variety of treatment options I'm actually surprised that over 3000 prostate cases have already been treated on the CK.
Whatever the flaws of the companies that produce them, CK and TOMO are revolutionary innovations in radiation delivery. Varian has had its share of these over the years as well. RapidArc is not one of them. 25 yrs ago during my residency we treated prostate cancer with arc therapy on Varian LINACs. RapidArc is simply a software upgrade to a standard LINAC allowing IMRT for more conformal arc therapy. Hyped as a "new" technological advance to compete with TOMO, it is a bit of a fraud.
It's interesting that Varian promotes RapidArc as superior to standard IMRT or TOMO with the legitimate claim that the prostate doesn't move as much with a 2 minute treatment time versus an 8 minute treatment time. Of course this claim isn't made against CK, which adjusts the beam direction within 2 seconds of tracking XRAYs being taken. The prostate doesn't move as much in 2 seconds as it does in 2 minutes.
PS - Scientists don't counter technical or clinical points made with sales figures.
Cyberknife saved a terminated liver cancer patient inTaiwan
http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-TW&u=http://news.epochtimes.com.tw/9/4/28/111076.h
tm&ei=Q3z4SZu0MJKgtgPC2-3cDg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search?q=cyberknife&hl=en&sa=N&as_qdr=d&start=80
*** translated from Chinese ***
Epoch Times, Taiwan
2009/04/28
The stereotactic radiosurgery equipment Cyberknife perform a surgery without anesthesia and cutting, and no hospitalization is needed. During the treatment patient listens to music. The treatment is about 10-minute and up to five days, can be effective to eradicate or control tumor cells. Patient is back to the course of normal daily life right after each treatment
67-year-old Mr. Chung has been customary to donate blood. After liver reaction with B, the examination revealed liver tumors. The tumors is located close to blood vessels and was inoperable. It was treated with alcohol embolization. After the treatment the tumor became larger with a diameter of 9cm. Various chemotherapy drugs have been tried still unable to control the disease. Doctors had no choice but to abandon the treatment, and declare him only 3-6 months of life.
After received the cyberknife treatment in Chi Mei Hospital, Mr. Zhong's tumor have been reduced by 70%, fetal protein values dropped to 57.8 from 30,180. Mr. Zhong has now return to normal life. Mrs. Zhong said that her husband had been preparing for the end. The Cyberknife changed her family from black-and-white into full-color. She hoped that the Cyberknife can benefit more patients in the future.
Dr Li-Ching Lin , director of radiation oncology in Chi Mei Hospital, pointed out that the current treatment of liver tumors with surgical resection, alcohol embolization, chemotherapy and radiation therapy-based, all have their limitations. Some patients' respond to embolization and chemotherapy are not satisfactory. A wide range of radiation around the tumor may also harm normal blood vessels and tissues.
Dr Zhang Jin-hongComputer, director of the Cyberknife Center, said that the 4th generation cyberknife which is just introduced from US is the only linear accelerator equipment in Mid-South Taiwan. The error margin is less than 1mm. The machine can produce a total of 1680 rays. Each course of treatment can be given the perspective of radiation oncology and can automatically lock the tumor radiation, and not hurt nerves or other cells.
Prostate cancer therapies in the spotlight at AUA meeting
http://www.medicaldevicedaily.com/servlet/com.accumedia.web.Dispatcher?next=bioWorldHeadlines_article&forceid=64257
Medical Device Daily
Published April 29, 2009
American Urological Association Annual Meeting
By LARRY HAIMOVITCH (Medical Device Daily Contributing Writer)
CHICAGO — The annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA; Linthicum, Maryland) the largest worldwide meeting for this specialty, is taking place here. Although a broad variety of topics are traditionally covered at this meeting, prostate cancer remains a crucial focus at every AUA meeting. And well it should, as it is the most common cancer in men with about one in six American men predicted to get prostate cancer during his lifetime.
According to the most recent data from the American Cancer Society (ACS; Atlanta), about 186,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. in 2008. This cancer will cause an estimated 29,000 deaths in the U.S. this year, making it the second-leading cause of cancer death in men, exceeded only by lung cancer.
The screening and treatment for prostate cancer have long been and continue to be mired in heavy controversy. There are several reasons for this situation, a critical one being that prostate cancer typically is very slow growing, making "watchful waiting" a viable treatment option. On the screening side of the ledger, there has never been an appropriate analysis of the risks and benefits of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, which over the past two decades has been widely adopted as a screening tool in the U.S. and other countries.
Further confusion has arisen because of divergent screening recommendations from key organizations. For example, the AUA and the ACS both recommend offering annual PSA testing and digital rectal examination beginning at the age of 50 years for men with a normal risk of prostate cancer and beginning at an earlier age for men who are at higher risk.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (Fort Washington, Pennsylvania) recommends a risk-based screening algorithm, including family history, race, and age. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel organized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, recently concluded that there was insufficient evidence in men under the age of 75 years to assess the balance between benefits and side effects associated with screening, and the panel recommended against screening men over the age of 75 years.
The raging controversy was further stoked recently, with the release of data from two landmark trials in the March 26, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. These studies, called Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial and the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) were discussed here on Sunday at a packed "Late Breaking Clinical Trials" plenary session.
The two trials, which enrolled a huge number of patients over many years, shared a virtually identical goal, i.e., to evaluate the effect of PSA screening on the death rate from prostate cancer.
The PLCO trial concluded that "... prostate-cancer screening provided no reduction in death rates at 7 years," thereby supporting the recent recommendations of the USPSTF. Conversely, the ERSPC study demonstrated a statistically significant 20% relative reduction in prostate cancer mortality associated with PSA screening, but the authors cautioned that "the ratio of benefits to risks that is achievable with more frequent screening or a lower PSA threshold than we used remains unknown."
The ERSPC authors, as might be expected from a study generated in healthcare cost conscious Europe, also stated that "... screening must take into account ... over-diagnosis, over-treatment, quality of life, cost, and cost-effectiveness."
The lead author of the ERSPC, Fritz Schroeder, MD, a urologist from the Erasmus Medical Center (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) told the AUA plenary session audience that "the message of prostate cancer screening has changed."
"We have clearly shown that early detection can significantly reduce the death rate but this comes at a very high cost. In my opinion, it is unethically unacceptable to screen 1,410 men and treat an additional 48 men to prevent one death."
David Crawford, MD, professor of surgery, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Denver) and one of the lead authors of the PLCO trial, said that "PSA is not the best test ... far from it. We need a better test and better markers of disease progression."
Echoing the frustrations of the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, Crawford concluded that despite the fact that routine screening did not reduce the death rate in the PLCO trial, "we cannot ignore the fact that 28,000 men died from prostate cancer in the last year."
Meanwhile, prostate cancer therapeutic options continue to increase and improve. At an AUA sponsored "Industry Clinical Update," one of the newest modalities, the CyberKnife (CK) robotic radiosurgery system, was discussed.
The CK system, which was pioneered and commercialized by Accuray (Sunnyvale, California), has been widely and successfully used for a variety of cancers for many years. Its use in prostate cancer began in early 2004 and recently the company reported that more than 3,000 prostate cancer patients have been treated worldwide. The pace of its use is clearly accelerating, as evidenced by the fact that in the recently completed third quarter of Accuray's 2009 fiscal year, about 400 prostate cancer patients were treated.
The clinical credibility of this modality was recently boosted by an article in the March 15, 2009 issue of the venerable International Journal of Radiation Oncology/Biology/Physics – more widely known as the Red Journal.
The study, lead by Christopher King, MD, at the Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, California) treated 41 low-risk prostate cancer patients and showed that at a median follow-up of 33 months, no patient experienced a PSA recurrence and early side effects were no worse than other prostate cancer therapies.
The authors noted that these results are "highly encouraging," but cautioned that longer follow-up is required "to confirm durable biochemical control rates and low late toxicity profiles."
Speaking at the AUA meeting, Lee Ponsky, MD, assistant professor of urology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland) said that the CyberKnife is "one of the most exciting innovations in urology."
Ponsky, who described himself as a "serious skeptic" about new technology, has treated 28 patients to date and reported similar results to the Red Journal, i.e., that for early stage prostate cancer patients, the technology is effective and has tolerable side effects.
Another urologist, David Spellberg, MD, from Naples Urology Associates (Naples, Florida), voiced similar positive sentiments, saying "we are seeing very good clinical results ... this technology is clearly another good option for our prostate cancer patients."
His hospital has been by the far the most active center in the U.S., treating about 400 patients in recent years. Spellberg noted that word of mouth has been a very strong factor in the robust growth of procedures, as patients are drawn by the very short five-day treatment regimen. This compares very favorably to a 40-day course of therapy for traditional external radiation.
Accuray is now in the midst of conducting two large trials, both of which will eventually report five-year follow-up data. The first trial is treating early stage organ confined cancers and compares the CyberKnife to HDR (high dose rate) temporary brachytherapy. The second trial compares the CyberKnife to a homogeneous dose distribution in early-stage organ confined cancers.
Hi grant! good to see you.
No, they didn't purposely remove you. If you don't post for a certain period of time now, you're automatically removed by the system.
Hope you're doing well. I still watch it and believe in it fwiw.
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