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tm...
Actually, I am still fully invested in my core position of ARAY.
I had quit looking in on iHub for many months for several reasons... and I guess the HUB-elite-in-charge chose t remove me from the mod post!
I've still got a good bit of PAID membership time left so I came back to Hubville to browse about.
Looks like they took all my boards away from me but for one... where I am an assistant in name only.
I have hopes that someday the CK will be able to rise above MANAGEMENT greed and give us a nice little gain. But I now realize it would be folly to predict when!
Perhaps some premature departures by BOD members or management would facilitate that change of direction... almost anyone would be better for shareholders' interests than the ones running the company just now IMO.
Stanford Study on CyberKnife Radiosurgery for Prostate Cancer Demonstrates 100 Percent PSA Response at 33 months
Tuesday March 31, 2009, 8:30 am EDT
Prior Studies Demonstrate Frequency of Prostate Motion, Supporting Need for the CyberKnife System's Real-Time Tracking to Spare Surrounding Sensitive Structures
SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY - News), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today publication of the results from a prospective clinical study on CyberKnife radiosurgery for prostate cancer, which was published in the March 15, 2009 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics - also known as the Red Journal.
The study, led by Christopher King, M.D. at the Stanford University School of Medicine, treated 41 low-risk prostate cancer patients using CyberKnife radiosurgery. Continual image guidance was used to verify target position throughout the procedure allowing the team to precisely deliver very high doses of radiation in five short treatments. 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 refer to the findings as "highly encouraging," but remind readers that longer follow-up is required "to confirm durable biochemical control rates and low late toxicity profiles."
"The evidence in Dr. King's study shows a lot of promise for prostate cancer patients around the world who are looking for a shorter, less invasive and more convenient course of treatment," said Eric P. Lindquist, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Accuray. "We look forward to seeing longer term results and study outcomes examining the side effect profile of CyberKnife radiosurgery. Doctor and patient experience thus far has been very positive."
Because the prostate can move unpredictably due to bowel gas or filling of the bladder, it is important that prostate motion is assessed and corrected for throughout treatment to allow for accurate radiosurgery treatment. Recent studies have confirmed that the prostate experiences rapid and unpredictable motion of as much as five millimeters in as few as 30 seconds, meaning that radiosurgery delivery must recognize and correct for even the slightest motion to ensure the target receives adequate dose and the surrounding sensitive structures, such as the rectum, bladder, urethra and nerves, are maximally spared.
In September 2008 Accuray launched the InTempo(TM) Adaptive Imaging System, which enhances the CyberKnife System's ability to continually track and correct for motion of the prostate during treatment. With the InTempo System, CyberKnife radiation delivery automatically adapts to each individual patient's prostate motion by intelligently increasing the imaging frequency during periods of rapid and erratic prostate movement. This continual assessment of prostate motion, combined with the CyberKnife System's automatic correction for movement in real-time, not only helps to ensure prescribed doses are delivered to the prostate; it also helps to ensure surrounding structures are avoided, minimizing associated side effects and complications. Using the InTempo System, the CyberKnife System drastically minimizes the "image age" - or time between image capture and when individual beam delivery is complete - to as few as 10 seconds.
Conventional IGRT therapies and other "rapid" radiation delivery techniques typically provide imaging limited to only pre-treatment set-up and therefore lack the ability to recognize motion that occurs during treatment delivery. With such conventional techniques there is - at minimum - a two minute delay in the time between when the image is captured and the beam delivery is completed. With an image age of two minutes or more, potential motion that has proven to occur in as few as 30 seconds remains undetected, potentially resulting in inferior targeting accuracy and a heightened risk of surrounding tissue complications.
Another study, led by the Stanford University School of Medicine and published in the Red Journal's September 1, 2008, concluded the following in regard to prostate motion during radiation delivery; "Our study shows the importance of real-time image guidance and motion-compensation techniques such as the robotic linear accelerator used in CyberKnife during hypofractionated prostate radiation treatment. Given the magnitude and random nature of prostate motion as well as recent technical advancements in various related fields, real-time monitoring of prostate position to compensate for the motion should be part of future prostate radiation therapy to ensure adequate dose coverage of the target while maintaining adequate sparing of adjacent structures."
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 - News), 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 60,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 155 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.accuray.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated with the medical device industry. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements relating to clinical studies, regulatory review and approval, and commercialization of products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make include: market acceptance of products; competing products, the combination of our products with complementary technology; and other risks detailed from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on Form 10-K for the 2008 fiscal year, as updated in our Form 10-Q filed on February 5, 2009 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual performance or results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.
Japan Treats First Extracranial Patients Using CyberKnife Radiosurgery
First Patients Treated in Yokohama, Japan Following Expanded Japanese Regulatory Approval
SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that the first extracranial patients were treated in Japan using CyberKnife radiosurgery, following the System's recently expanded regulatory approval.
The CyberKnife System (marketed in Japan as CyberKnife II) was previously approved in Japan to treat only intracranial, head and neck tumors. In June 2008 Accuray announced that Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) had granted Shonin approval of the CyberKnife System for extracranial treatments, including tumors in the spine, lung, liver, pancreas and prostate. This regulatory approval and the upgraded capabilities dramatically expand the types of patients that can be treated with radiosurgery in the country.
"Having personally treated thousands of patients using CyberKnife radiosurgery, I was thrilled when the technology received Shonin approval for extracranial use," said Kengo Sato, M.D., chief medical officer at Yokohama CyberKnife Center in Yokohama, Japan. "I have seen firsthand the System's benefits in treating brain tumors and am very happy to be able to extend those benefits to our extracranial patients. We're now treating patients who were previously considered untreatable and are very pleased with the results we're seeing."
"Japan remains the second largest installed base of CyberKnife Systems with more than 20 installed to date, so these extracranial treatments are just the beginning," said Eric P. Lindquist, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Accuray. "These patients are the first of many to experience a convenient, comfortable and precise form of cancer care."
About the CyberKnife(R) 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 60,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 155 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.accuray.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated with the medical device industry. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements relating to regulatory review and approval, clinical studies and commercialization of products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make include: market acceptance of products; competing products, the combination of our products with complementary technology; and other risks detailed from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on Form 10-K for the 2008 fiscal year, as updated in our Form 10-Q filed on February 5, 2009 and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual performance or results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.
SOURCE Accuray Incorporated
-0- 03/19/2009
/CONTACT: Stephanie Tomei, Senior Manager, Public Relations, Accuray
Incorporated, +1-408-789-4234, stomei@accuray.com; or Brianne Donahue of
Schwartz Communications, +1-415-817-2545, bdonahue@schwartz-pr.com/
/Web Site: http://www.accuray.com /
(ARAY)
CO: Accuray Incorporated
ST: California, Japan
IN: HEA MTC MEQ
SU: PDT
Hey grant,
Hope you're doing well. I just noticed you're not mod here anymore :(
I still believe this is an awesome product! Maybe Obama can give management a kick in the behind for being so greedy here!
That does make you wonder, doesn't it!
Maybe he went for CK and that group also saw what is being said -- way too late. Perhaps CK even asked not to be mentioned to avoid being identified with an inevitably sad story.
Off Topic -- My heart really went out to him/them during that interview. I loved his orn'ry self.
This article says Swayze didn't have surgery let along CK. Wonder now what the real scoop is...
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/pancreatic-cancer/news/20090107/swayze-opens-up-about-pancreatic-cancer
No mention of CK...
Scared Swayze says may have only 2 years to live
Tue Jan 6, 2009 5:20pm EST
By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Patrick Swayze, in his first television interview since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, said he was scared, angry and "going through hell" and may only have two years to live.
A year after his diagnosis with one of the most deadly forms of cancer, the "Dirty Dancing" star told TV interviewer Barbara Walters that he already has defied survival rates and reports predicting he should have "been dead a long time."
But he acknowledged his time may be short. "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking. Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."
The American Cancer Society says pancreatic cancer has only a five percent, five-year survival rate. The majority of patients die within six months.
"You can bet I'm going through hell," Swayze told Walters in the interview to be broadcast on ABC on Wednesday.
"There's a lot of fear here ... Yeah, I'm scared. Yeah, I'm angry. Yeah, I'm (asking) why me?" Swayze, 56, told Walters.
But he denied reports he was near death. "Am I dying? Am I giving up? Am I on my death bed? Am I saying goodbye to people? No way."
Swayze said doctors diagnosed stage 4 pancreatic cancer last January, with the cancer already having spread to his liver.
'DREAMING OF A FUTURE'
The actor and dancer underwent an aggressive course of chemotherapy and treatment with an experimental drug. He then stunned the industry by starting to film a new TV detective series "The Beast" while undergoing treatment and without taking pain-killers.
"I think everybody thought I was out of my mind, you know, thinking I'm gonna pull off a TV show," he said of the 12-hour work days, mostly in cold, Chicago night conditions.
"When you're shooting you can't do drugs," Swayze said of his decision not to take pain-killers. "I can't do Hydrocodone or Vicodin or these kinds of things that take the edge off of it, 'cause it takes the edge off of your brain."
In five months of filming, Swayze missed a day and a half of work. "The Beast" starts airing on the A&E cable TV network on January 15.
Swayze is known around the world for his role as the dance instructor in the 1987 coming of age movie "Dirty Dancing" which inspired hit stage shows in London, Australia and Canada. He went on to star with Demi Moore in 1990 film romance "Ghost."
Married to wife Niemi for 33 years, Swayze said he was stunned by the outpouring of love from fans since his diagnosis, although he does not want to be a poster-boy for living with cancer.
"I keep dreaming of a future, a future with a long and healthy life, not lived in the shadow of cancer but in the light," Swayze told Walters.
"What winning is to me, is not giving up, is no matter what's thrown at me, I can take it. And I can keep going," he said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Sandra Maler)
Barbara Walters Interviews Swayze
New York, NY (CNS) - ... In his first television interview since being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Patrick Swayze invites Walters to his California ranch for an interview.
Swayze and his wife Lisa Niemi will both spend time with Walters in her special entitled "Barbara Walters Special-Patrick Swayze: The Truth." The special will air Wednesday, January 7 at 10/9 on ABC.
(Let's hope CK gets some coverage!)
Anybody who invests with this thieving bunch a bastages
Deserves to lose their mioney. This buncha hores don't give one stinkin dam about the shareholders. They took a $20+++ stock and sucked all the profits out of it every Q for the last 2+ years with bonuses to their greedy azzez,
Now they probably own so much stock that even a shareholder revolt won't do any good.
Just my 2 cents.
Shareholders will never benefit from owning this stock.
BT
Accuray Announces Results for First Quarter of Fiscal 2009
December 18, 2008 8:00 PM ET
PR Newswire
Inventory Investigation Concluded
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated ARAY, a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, ended September 27, 2008.
For the first quarter of fiscal 2009, Accuray reported total revenue of $55.9 million, a 15 percent increase over first quarter of fiscal 2008 total revenue of $48.6 million and a 10 percent sequential increase over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 total revenue of $50.9 million.
Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 was $3.2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, compared to net income of $2.3 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, during the same period last year. The loss for the quarter was driven primarily by non-recurring employee separation expenses of $2.1 million and inventory write downs of $1.3 million.
Non-cash, stock based compensation charges for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 were $5.0 million, or $0.09 per diluted share.
During the first quarter of fiscal 2009, the company added 12 new contracts to backlog, representing a total value of $58.6 million. Of the 12 contracts, 7 came from international customers.
At September 27, 2008, backlog was approximately $644 million, with approximately $358 million associated with CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System contracts and approximately $286 million associated with services and other recurring revenue. Accuray's backlog is composed of signed contracts that the company believes have a substantially high probability of being recognized as revenue in future periods. Of the $644 million in backlog at the end of the quarter, 70 percent consisted of non-contingent contracts, representing backlog for which contractual contingencies have been satisfied.
Accuray's cash and investment balances at the end of the quarter totaled $162.1 million, which includes cash and cash equivalents of $27.2 million, short-term investments of $91.5 million, long-term investments of $38.0 million and $5.4 million in restricted cash. At the end of the first quarter the company continued to have zero debt.
Accuray's Audit Committee concluded its independent investigation into allegations made by a former Accuray employee regarding possible improprieties in the handling and accounting of certain inventory items. Upon completion of the investigation, the Audit Committee determined that although a material weakness has been identified in the company's internal control over financial reporting with respect to inventory processes, no material prior period adjustments were identified. It was therefore determined that no financial restatement was needed for prior quarters or years.
Outlook
The following statement is forward-looking and actual results may differ materially. Accuray expects revenue for fiscal 2009 to be in the range of $230 million to $250 million.
Additional Information
Additional information regarding backlog segmentation, which will be discussed during the conference call, is available in the Investor Relations section of the company's Web site at http://www.accuray.com.
Earnings Call Open to Investors
Accuray will hold a conference call for financial analysts and investors on Friday December 19, 2008 at 5:30 a.m. PT / 8:30 a.m. ET. The conference call dial-in numbers are 1-866-379-2019 (USA) or 1-706-634-1525 (International), Conference ID: 78712534. A live webcast of the call will also be available from the Investor Relations section on the company's Web site at http://www.accuray.com. In addition, a recording of the call will be available by calling 1-800-642-1687 (USA) or 1-706-645-9291 (International), Conference ID number: 78712534, beginning at 7:30 a.m. PT / 10:30 a.m. ET, December 19, 2008 and will be available through December 26, 2008. A webcast replay will also be available from the Investor Relations section of the company's Web site at http://www.accuray.com from approximately 7:30 a.m. PT / 10:30 a.m. ET tomorrow through Accuray's release of its results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009, ending December 27, 2008.
About the CyberKnife(R) 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 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 50,000 patients worldwide and currently 150 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.accuray.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated with the medical device industry. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, as to financial guidance including realization of backlog, procedure growth, market acceptance; clinical studies, regulatory review and approval, and commercialization of products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make include: market acceptance of products; variability of installation and sales cycle including customer financing and construction delays; competing products, the combination of our products with complementary technology; and other risks detailed from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on Form 10-K for the 2008 fiscal year, as updated from time to time by our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual performance or results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.
Accuray Incorporated
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except per share data)
Three months ended
September 27, September 29,
2008 2007
Net revenue:
Products $37,455 $36,984
Shared ownership programs 1,036 2,312
Services 15,907 6,999
Other 1,459 2,351
Total net revenue 55,857 48,646
Cost of revenue:
Costs of products 14,744 16,440
Costs of shared ownership programs 262 712
Costs of services 11,185 4,458
Costs of other 1,237 1,125
Total cost of revenue 27,428 22,735
Gross profit 28,429 25,911
Operating expenses:
Selling and marketing 13,480 10,156
Research and development 8,754 7,715
General and administrative 10,433 7,901
Total operating expenses 32,667 25,772
Income (loss) from operations (4,238) 139
Interest and other income, net 1,113 2,612
Income (loss) before provision for
income taxes and non-controlling
interest (3,125) 2,751
Provision for income taxes 54 486
Net income (loss) attributable to
common shareholders (3,179) 2,265
Net income (loss) per common share,
basic and diluted:
Basic $(0.06) $0.04
Diluted $(0.06) $0.04
Weighted average common shares
outstanding used in computing net
income (loss) per share:
Basic 54,625 54,025
Diluted 54,625 61,154
Cost of revenue, selling and
marketing, research and development,
and general and administrative
expenses include stock-based
compensation charges as follows:
Cost of revenue $632 $321
Selling and marketing $1,045 $1,107
Research and development $782 $675
General and administrative $2,512 $2,201
Accuray Incorporated
Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
September 27, June 28,
2008 2008
Assets
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents $27,196 $36,936
Restricted cash 5,411 4,830
Short-term marketable securities 91,471 85,536
Accounts receivable, net of allowance
for doubtful accounts of $27 at both
September 27, 2008 and June 30, 2008 24,969 33,918
Inventories 26,610 23,047
Prepaid expenses and other current
assets 7,702 6,431
Deferred cost of revenue-current 23,527 31,667
Total current assets 206,886 222,365
Long-term marketable securities 37,988 37,014
Deferred cost of revenue-noncurrent 12,842 11,724
Property and equipment, net 16,846 17,140
Goodwill 4,495 4,495
Intangible assets, net 861 926
Other assets 1,381 1,340
Total assets $281,299 $295,004
Liabilities, temporary equity and
stockholders' equity
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable $12,974 $12,962
Accrued expenses 14,183 11,873
Customer advances-current 17,131 22,331
Deferred revenue-current 76,057 87,455
Total current liabilities 120,345 134,621
Long-term liabilities:
Customer advances-noncurrent 2,500 2,900
Deferred revenue-noncurrent 26,749 26,720
Total liabilities 149,594 164,241
Commitments and contingencies
Stockholders' equity
Preferred stock, $0.001 par value;
authorized: 5,000,000 shares; no
shares issued and outstanding.
Common stock, $0.001 par value;
authorized: 100,000,000 shares;
issued: 56,990,566 and 56,719,864
at September 30, 2008 and June 30,
2008, respectively; outstanding:
54,850,548 and 54,579,846 shares at
September 30, 2008 and June 30, 2008,
respectively. 55 55
Additional paid-in capital 258,776 252,901
Accumulated other comprehensive (loss) (2,821) (1,067)
Accumulated deficit (124,305) (121,126)
Total stockholders' equity 131,705 130,763
Total liabilities and stockholders'
equity $281,299 $295,004
SOURCE Accuray Incorporated
Copyright 2008 PR Newswire
Everyone, if you have not already done so,
needs to go to http://www.accuray.com/ to view the TWO NEW animated videos (that several of us have been asking for (FOR A YEAR or more) that will show the difference between ARAY and the coplanar radiation sprayers made by the BIG, SUCESSFUL, SCARED-AS-CAN-BE competition, like Varian!
The videos are just under 8 minutes long, available on the home page in the "Patients" section.
One shows treatment by CK for lung cancer, the other shows treatment for prostate cancer. However, the animations for other treated forms of cancer would be very similar.
These videos clearly show the difference between modalities & technologies that set CyberKnife apart.
It is about time the eggheads-in-charge took the advice that ANALysts are either uncomprehending of the conceptual differences... or... bought by and allied with Varian, etc., to keep the markets and investors confused regarding the radiation delivery differences.
NOW if we could just get MANAGEMENT treated by CK to ablate their GREED GLAND CANCERS!
Thanks to Pauvre Papillon for this:
Accuray at the WSJ
Here is a very interesting post from the CyberKnife blog debate going on over at the WSJ:
“I was quite skeptical when the hospital I provide professional services to purchased a CK. I have become cynical about the claims of new technologies, such as IMRT use in all but very selected cases. Having now treated about 150 pts with the CK, I know that the CK can technically do things no other SRS unit can (my partners have a Novalis unit at another hospital). Pts tolerate treatment well with little morbidity. I have been surprised by the number of complete responses by PET scan, and unquestionably the survival of several pts have been prolonged. Our hospital has a DaVinci and a very active seed program, so we are not promoting CK to treat prostate CA. However I have treated 4 pts with prostate CA who came to us insisting on CK, and they have done extremely well. Watching prostate movement during treatment (that is corrected by the CK) has taught me what delusional nonsense it is to talk of 5 mm posterior margins during 10+ minute IMRT treatments. I went to the ASTRO IGRT meeting last year and was stunned by the unprecedented (to me) hostility shown Accuray by other vendors (esp Varian) and MDs on their payroll. Clearly they are threatened.”
Comment by Kono, non-investor MD who uses CyberKnife - December 10, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Note that Kono says they treated four prostate patients who “came to us insisting on CyberKnife and they have done extremely well”.
Word is getting out but this is still pretty much a patient-driven phenomenon.
Note also that Kono says that other vendors, especially Varian, are openly hostile to Accuray. “Clearly they are threatened,” he says.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/11/28/is-cyberknife-ready-for-prime-time-in-prostate-cancer/?mod=yahoo_hs
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
IMO...
Those entrenched in negativity about ARAY are going to miss out unless the day comes that they change their minds! It is going to be expensive to hang tight with the OLD rad therapy device manufacturers!
One day this PPS might look ridiculously cheap!
You're always on top of things Dew
I wonder if Accuray is hiring? lol
Why Bertocci left BFRM to join ARAY:
#msg-33965319
:- )
Accuray names Bertocci chief financial officer
Thursday December 4, 10:29 am ET
Accuray names Derek Bertocci chief financial officer, filling position open since September
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) -- Medical radiation equipment maker Accuray Inc. said Thursday it named Derek Bertocci chief financial officer, filling the position left open when Robert E. McNamara resigned in September.
Holly Grey, Accuray's senior vice president of finance, has been working as interim chief financial officer.
Bertocci has served as the chief financial officer of San Mateo, Calif.-based BioForm Medical Inc. since October of 2006. He will start at Accuray on Jan. 1.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, BioForm said its CEO, Steven L. Basta, will handle the chief financial officer responsibilities until a replacement can be found. Bertocci's resignation does not trigger any severance payments, the company added.
Shares of Accuray fell 1 cent to $4.46 and shares of BioForm lost 4 cents to 93 cents in morning trading.
Swayze says he's winning fight against cancer
Dec 2 02:53 PM US/Eastern
NEW YORK (AP) - Patrick Swayze is angry about tabloid reports that say he doesn't have long to live.
The actor, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year, issued a statement Tuesday affirming that so far he is winning his fight against the disease and responding well to treatment.
Says Swayze: "They're reporting that I'm on my last legs and saying goodbye to my tearful family! ... It's upsetting that the shoddy and reckless reporting from these publications cast a negative shadow on the positive and good fight I'm fighting."
Swayze, who stars in the upcoming A&E; series "The Beast," says such coverage is tantamount to "emotional cruelty," and angers him "when hope is so precious."
Fascinating synergy...
Combined technologies
Two Studies Show Benefits of Removing Tumor Tissue in the Spine Prior to Adjuntive Treatments
Novel Approach Combines Radiation and Spine Stabilization to Optimize Treatment for Patients with Metastatic Disease
Last update: 4:30 p.m. EST Dec. 1, 2008
CHICAGO, Dec 01, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Two studies, presented this week at the 94th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), concluded a novel technique can improve outcomes for patients with vertebral compression fractures (VCF) caused by malignant tumors in the spine. The American Cancer Society estimates 30 to 70 percent of more than half a million people who die annually of cancer have metastatic disease and 10 percent of the 750,000 vertebral compression fractures that occur each year are caused by metastatic spine tumors.
This new treatment uses a plasma mediated medical device, the Cavity SpineWand(R), developed by ArthroCare(R) Corp to debulk, or reduce, the lesion. Bone cement can be subsequently injected to stabilize the fracture. Stabilization of the fracture helps to ease the pain associated with VCFs. The combined therapies have been successfully used in tandem with radiation and chemotherapy.
One study, led by Mark Perman, M.D., an ArthroCare consultant, examined a synergistic approach to treating VCFs secondary to spinal metastases. The approach consisted of three treatments: removing tumor tissue to create a cavity, filling the cavity with bone cement to stabilize the vertebral body and then treating the tumor with either radiosurgery or external beam radiation to reduce the remaining tumor burden. A separate study by Bassem Georgy, M.D. found removing tumor tissue with the Cavity SpineWand increased control and predictability during cement injection.
"Patients with VCFs are typically in extreme pain and radiation therapy alone, which is critical to treating the cancer, may be ineffective as a palliative option," said Dr. Perman, Chief of Radiosurgery, The CyberKnife Center at North Florida Radiology. "With this synergistic approach, my patients receive quick pain relief and mechanical stability without delaying tumor treatment, which can dramatically improve quality of life."
The study led by Dr. Perman, "Vertebroplasty and Radiation Therapy: Synergistic Treatment of Pathologic Compression Fractures," involved seven patients suffering from painful VCFs. After treatment, all but one patient reported significant pain relief immediately following the treatments which was sustained or reduced further during follow-up with radiation therapy. Pain levels were assessed at three different time points over the course of three months.
In the study "Percutaneous Anterior Column Stabilization in Metastatic Spine Lesions: Value of Plasma-mediated Radiofrequency Ablation and Cement Augmentation," Dr. Georgy, interventional neuro-radiologist and Associate Professor as University of California San Diego, and a consultant to ArthroCare, reported 82.3 percent success in placing bone cement in the anterior 2/3 of the vertebral body, which is commonly believed to be a key factor in stabilizing the spine. The study included 30 patients (34 levels) with 25 (83 percent) reporting pain relief following cement augmentation.
The Cavity SpineWand is a minimally invasive device that uses a plasma based technology called Coblation(R) to create a cavity in a malignant lesion. The Cavity SpineWand is inserted through a cannula to reach the tumor inside the vertebrae. Once inside, a low-heat, plasma cloud removes tumor tissue while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Medical grade bone cement is subsequently injected to stabilize the fracture using the space created by the reduction of the lesion. Following vertebroplasty, patients report significant pain relief, often within 72 hours post procedure.
This minimally invasive procedure is typically performed by a specialist in consultation with a radiation oncologist. Over 200 physicians in the United States have been trained in these treatments to date.
Dr. Perman will present "Vertebroplasty and Radiation Therapy: Synergistic Treatment of Pathologic Compression Fractures" on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008, at 10:30 a.m. at S102D. Dr. Georgy will present "Percutaneous Anterior Column Stabilization in Metastatic Spine Lesions: Value of Plasma-mediated Radiofrequency Ablation and Cement Augmentation" on Thurs., Dec. 4, at N226.
ABOUT ARTHROCARE
Founded in 1993, ArthroCare Corp. ( www.arthrocare.com) is a highly innovative, multi-business medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets minimally invasive surgical products. With these products, ArthroCare targets a multi-billion dollar market opportunity across several medical specialties, significantly improving existing surgical procedures and enabling new, minimally invasive procedures. Many of ArthroCare's products are based on its patented Coblation technology, which uses low-temperature radiofrequency energy to gently and precisely dissolve rather than burn soft tissue -- minimizing damage to healthy tissue. Used in more than four million surgeries worldwide, Coblation-based devices have been developed and marketed for sports medicine; spine/neurologic; ear, nose and throat (ENT); cosmetic; urologic and gynecologic procedures. ArthroCare also has added a number of novel technologies to its portfolio, including Opus Medical sports medicine, Parallax spine and Applied Therapeutics ENT products, to complement Coblation within key indications.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENTS - CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
The information provided in this press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding the strength or expected benefits of the Company's technology.
Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on beliefs and assumptions by management, and on information currently available to management.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and ArthroCare undertakes no obligation to update any of them publicly in light of new information or future events. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Examples of these factors include, but are not limited to, with respect to the studies mentioned above, the preliminary nature of the studies listed above and the possibility that more studies may be needed, the uncertainty over whether the malignancies treated in the studies mentioned above may return, the possibility that the pain improvement mentioned may not be permanent, the possibility that these studies may not be accepted by insurers or other payors; and generally, the strength of the Company's technology and its continued adoption, unanticipated accounting issues or audit issues regarding the financial data for the periods being restated in the Company's previously announced restatement; the ability of the Company and its independent registered public accounting firm to confirm information or data identified in the review, being overseen by the Audit Committee of the Company's Board of Directors, of the scope and nature of the Company's internal controls (the "Review"); unanticipated issues regarding the Review that prevent or delay the Company's independent registered public auditing firm from relying upon the Review or that require additional efforts, documentation, procedures, review or investigation; the Company's ability to design or improve internal controls to address issues detected in the Review or by management in its reassessment of the Company's internal controls; the impact upon the Company's operations of the Review, legal compliance matters or internal controls, improvement and remediation; difficulties in controlling expenses, including costs of the Review, legal compliance matters or internal controls review, improvement and remediation; the Company's ability to become current in its SEC periodic reporting requirements; the outcome of pending litigation; general business, economic and political conditions; competitive developments in the medical devices market; changes in applicable legislative or regulatory requirements; the Company's ability to effectively and successfully implement its financial and strategic alternatives, as well as business strategies, and manage the risks in its business; the reactions of the marketplace to the foregoing; and other risks and uncertainties discussed more fully in the Company's SEC filings, including those discussed under Item 1A. "Risk Factors" in its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2007.
OMG that is too funny! I'm going to have to share that with someone!
thanks frenchee
Short-term down trend line taken out (see referenced post). Next target is 6.77
Ownership filling shows two types of buys: Derivative and non-derivative... both at very low levels... like $0.75! now one category owned over 400k the other one over 30k... what are they?
anyone?
First CyberKnife in Saudi Arabia to be Installed at Prestigious King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that the first CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be installed at the prestigious King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh. It is the first CyberKnife System to be installed in the Middle East region.
King Faisal Specialist Hospital, the leading medical institution in Saudi Arabia, has the largest cancer treatment facility in the Gulf region and was established to become the premier international center for cancer research in prevention and treatment.
Accuray's CyberKnife System is the first and only robotic radiosurgery system to enable non-invasive treatment of tumors anywhere in the body with sub-millimeter precision. The CyberKnife System tracks and detects -- in real-time -- movement of the patient and tumor during treatment and can automatically adjust the position of the radiation beam to minimize damage to healthy surrounding tissue.
"Because of its accuracy and non-invasive nature, the CyberKnife System can offer an alternative to patients who may not be able to tolerate other cancer treatments or who have medically inoperable tumors," said Mohammad Al Shabanah, M.D., head of Radiation Oncology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital. "CyberKnife radiosurgery delivers precise beams of radiation from many angles outside the body without requiring the use of a metal head frame used in previous treatments, which will eliminate the pain and inconvenience for patients."
"With a full range of cancer treatments, King Faisal Specialist Hospital is delivering on its promise to offer comprehensive, state-of-the-art care to patients across Saudi Arabia," said Belal Moftah, M.D., chairman of the Department of Biomedical Physics at King Faisal Specialist Hospital. "Our management is determined to make King Faisal Specialist Hospital the leading institution in the region in all ranges of radiotherapy services."
"We are happy that a leading tertiary hospital such as King Faisal Specialist Hospital will be able to provide state-of-the-art cancer care with the CyberKnife System," said Eric P. Lindquist, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Accuray Incorporated. "With the addition of the CyberKnife System, the Cancer Center can further expand its capabilities and offer treatments for patients who may not have had other options until now."
About King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre
KFSH&RC is an 894-bed multi-facility, multi-entity tertiary care hospital and one of the leading healthcare institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Its mission is to provide medical services of highly specialized nature and promote medical research and education programs, including postgraduate education training, as well as contribute to the prevention of disease.
About King Faisal Cancer Centre
The King Faisal Cancer Centre (KFCC) is a newly established structure for cancer care of adult patients with a mission of providing excellent cancer treatment, education and research by means of integrated team work and the vision to become the best international centre for cancer research, prevention, and treatment. Accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Collaborating Center for Cancer Prevention and Control, KFCC patients are assessed in multidisciplinary clinics and treated in accordance with disease specific internationally accepted management guidelines. KFCC houses the National Cancer Registry and the Gulf Council Countries (GCC) Cancer Registry which defines population-based incidence of cancer in the Kingdom.
About the CyberKnife(R) 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 50,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 140 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.accuray.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated with the medical device industry. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements relating to clinical studies, regulatory review and approval, and commercialization of products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make include: market acceptance of products; competing products, the combination of our products with complementary technology; and other risks detailed from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2008 as updated from time to time by our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual performance or results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.
SOURCE Accuray Incorporated
Waukesha Memorial Hospital Webcasts Brain Cancer Panel
Are you interested in learning more about brain cancer treatments?
On Wednesday, October 8, 2008, ORlive will webcast a panel of physicians discussing the case of a brain tumor patient treated with CyberKnife® technology.
ProHealth Care is presenting the panel discussion from Waukesha Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin. Radiation oncologist Nagrenda (Bobby) Koneru, MD, neuro-oncologist Hendrikus Krouwer, MD, PhD, and neurosurgeon Kenneth Reichert, MD, will participate in the roundtable discussion.
The meeting will be moderated by Michael McCrea, PhD, of ProHealth Care’s Neuroscience Center.
The public is invited to watch the live webcast free of charge beginning at 12:00 PM CDT. If you miss the live broadcast, you can view it later by accessing the ORlive archives.
If you’re a patient in the United States who’d like to learn more about brain cancer, there’s additional information available on the American Cancer Society web site.
NOTE: CyberKnife® is a registered trademark of Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ:ARAY).
plfm... as for ARAY and shareholder vote for 2008...
I'm voting AGAINST everything they recommend as a protest vote.
Won't change much this year, but might serve as a warning.
I think the BOD/management either get the ARAY act together this year... or BIG TIME unrest will surface by next year, and attempts to oust several of those on the BOD or in management might come to pass!
JMO...
grant should ARAY buy private company intouch robot a video robot w/ camera for doctors to see patients in a diffrent way .
also grant are you voting to keep aray's BOD?
Story about Cyberknife
http://www.physorg.com/news141217801.html
Slightly broke the 8.37 barrier today and now next target appears to be 9. The bulls seem to be in charge with today's 9.23% move...bears will be back in charge with a close < 8.28.
Accuray Incorporated's CEO to Speak at UBS Global Life Sciences Conference
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that its president and chief executive officer, Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., is scheduled to present at the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference in New York City, on Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. EDT (6:00 a.m. PDT).
A live webcast of the presentation will be available online from the investor relations page of the Company's Web site at http://www.accuray.com. The webcast replay of the presentation will begin approximately three hours after the conclusion of the live presentation and will be available until October 25, 2008.
ORLive Presents: Revolutionizing Cancer Treatment With CyberKnife
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Or-Live-Inc-900127.html
Sep 15, 2008 16:50 ET
Live Webcast: From Waukesha Memorial Hospital: October 8, 2008 12:00 PM CDT
WAUKESHA, WI--(Marketwire - September 15, 2008) - On October 8 at 12:00 p.m. CDT, ProHealth Care will present a panel discussion at Waukesha Memorial Hospital on CyberKnife®, one of the world's most sophisticated cancer treatment technologies. The panel will include Bobby Koneru, MD, radiation oncologist; Hendrikus Krouwer, MD, PhD, neuro-oncologist; and Kenneth Reichert, MD, neurosurgeon, and will be moderated by Michael McCrea, PhD, executive director of ProHealth Care's Neuroscience Center. The panel will discuss the case of a brain tumor patient treated with CyberKnife as well as the CyberKnife treatment process.
Kenneth W. Reichert, MD relates, "The CyberKnife Radiosurgery is a variation of treatment that allows a patient to have radiation focused to the tumor in hopes of eliminating the tumor and the growth of the tumor without necessarily causing the same side effects that the brain substance would have in normal radiation therapy."
CyberKnife® is a registered trademark of Accuray.
To view a preview of this program and learn more visit OR-Live
VNR: www.OR-Live.com
blinkx could be a hidden gem ..
Blinkx # 1 video search engine with 26 million hours of content
found this funny video from SNL
If you go to youtube it will not be allowed to play due to copyrights from NBC .
Blinkx symbol BLNKF.pk here is the link very funny vid too.
http://www.blinkx.com/video/snl-palin-clinton-show-intro/zn--_j2oKiVbuJAXuU7Ywg
Yup
Put a couple mil in the bank and bail.
Accuray Incorporated Announces Resignation of Chief Financial Officer
Last Update: 9/11/2008 4:00:00 PM
Accuray Incorporated Announces Resignation of Chief Financial Officer
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept 11, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Accuray Incorporated (ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that Robert E. McNamara has resigned as chief financial officer and senior vice president to pursue other interests. Holly Grey, Accuray's senior vice president of finance since March 2008, has been appointed to serve as senior vice president of finance and interim principle financial officer until a successor is found.
"Robert McNamara has been a valuable member of our management team," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer. "We appreciate the contributions he has made during his tenure at Accuray and wish him the best in his future endeavors."
Grant your thoughts on this please..
Wonder if they'll have security with metal detectors at the front door lol
Accuray Incorporated to Host Investor and Analyst Meeting at ASTRO
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, will host an Investor and Analyst Meeting in Boston, Mass. on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. EDT (11:00 a.m. PDT). This meeting will coincide with the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO).
A live webcast of the presentation will be available online from the investor relations page of the Company's Web site at http://www.accuray.com. The webcast replay of the presentation will begin approximately one hour after the conclusion of the live presentation and will be available for approximately 30 days.
About the CyberKnife(R) 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 50,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 140 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.accuray.com.
ST. LUKE'S EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL TO ADD CYBERKNIFE SYSTEM.
Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ:ARAY), Sunnyvale, Calif., has announced that St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston has purchased a CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System to further expand treatment offerings for its nationally recognized NeuroScience Center program. The CyberKnife System will be installed in a newly constructed facility designed to expand the hospital's radiation oncology facility.
St. Luke's has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's top 50 hospitals for a number of specialties, including neurology and neurosurgery. It is the only hospital in Houston, and only one of four hospitals in Texas, to be named a Neuroscience Center of Excellence by NeuStrategy, Inc.
"The addition of the CyberKnife System to our tools will further strengthen our position as a provider of innovative, comprehensive and high quality care," said Youssef G. Comair, M.D., FRCSC at St. Luke's. "When we surveyed our physicians about what new technology was needed to serve our community, they overwhelmingly believed that the CyberKnife System was the best option for our patient population.The CyberKnife System is truly a revolutionary device that will enable us to give patients a non-surgical alternative for treatment of cancer or other conditions affecting the nervous system."
St. Luke's will use the CyberKnife System primarily to treat vascular malformations and intracranial tumors, but it will give the hospital flexibility to treat tumors in the spine, lung, prostate, kidney and pancreas as well. Because the CyberKnife System combines robotics and sophisticated real-time imaging technology, it is capable of delivering high doses of radiation to tumors anywhere in the body with sub-millimeter accuracy. These capabilities eliminate the need for invasive head and body frames, which other systems require to immobilize the patient for tumor tracking. The robotic arm also enables the system to target tumors that are unreachable by other radiosurgery systems or surgery. As a result, the CyberKnife System offers new hope to patients who are considered inoperable, have surgically complex tumors, or are seeking an alternative to surgery.
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"St. Luke's is renowned for its commitment to the highest standards of neurological and neurosurgical patient care," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Accuray. "We are pleased to be working with them to offer their patients a non-invasive alternative to brain surgery and other cancer treatments."
About the CyberKnife(R) 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.
"I call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing... All day you wait for the pitch you like,... The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, 'Swing. you bum!'"
W. Buffett
(WABC) 7 On Call - Cyberknife helps cancer patients
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/health&id=6357201
Thursday, August 28, 2008 | 6:35 PM
Seven's On Call with Dr. Jay Adlersberg
RED BANK (WABC) -- There is a treatment for cancer that's becoming more and more popular.
It's called Radiosurgery, and several different high-tech machines are available to do it. One of them is called Cyberknife.
It's costly, but it's amazing. It's a radiation tool that functions like surgery, obliterating tumors with precision, without cuts and without pain. First, they were used only for brain tumors, then brain and spine. Now, they're expanding in use.
Motorcycle lover Tony Fusco has owned dozens of motorcycles. He's been riding since he was a teenager. But it was only after the treatment of his pancreatic cancer that for the first time ever, he bought a bike that was brand new.
"It's like there's another life, you know," he said. "So I feel great, I really do."
Tony isn't cured, at least that's not the word yet. He's still being monitored, but he's had no cancer effects since he was treated with Radiosurgery three years ago.
He had gotten a very bleak diagnosis: inoperable cancer of the pancreas.
"So I said 'Doc, what does that mean?'" Fusco said. "And he said, 'I'm sorry to say that you only have four months to live.' And I just fell apart."
But Tony's close-knit family found an option for him at the Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, New Jersey: a stereotactic Radiosurgery tool called the Cyberknife. It's a robotic arm that delivers very precise doses of radiation.
"We can give a high-end dose in such a precise manner than we get the same results as if we had cut it out," Dr. Nathan Kaufman said.
The arm movement allows for the radiation to be delivered from different angles, and the precision saves nearby organs from receiving radiation.
The robot is constantly adjusting, even to breathing movements.
"The robot is constantly imaging the target, so it's like a sniper fixing on a target," Dr. Kaufman said. "And even if there's a little movement, it will automatically move."
Not all tumors can be treated with the Cyberknife, but it's a growing option for many cancer patients. Radiation therapy is often one way to get rid of a cancer without surgery.
Actor Patrick Swayze, who has pancreatic cancer, is reportedly being treated with a Cyberknife.
Some hospitals have a similar system to the Cyberknife called the Novalis System.
Information from the American Brain Tumor Association:
How is Radiosurgery given?
There are several techniques used to deliver Radiosurgery. In the paragraphs that follow, we describe a typical day of treatment using the more common types of Radiosurgery equipment. Although the equipment or method you see may vary, the goal of the treatment is the same.
Your first contact with the Radiosurgery unit will likely be with one of the members of the Radiosurgery team. Radiosurgery requires a team of specialists. That team may include a neurosurgeon, radiation oncologist, radiologist, radiation physicist, neurologist, anesthesiologist, specially trained nurses, technologists and the unit support staff. Members of the team first review your medical records to decide if Radiosurgery would be of benefit to you. If it is determined that Radiosurgery is an option and you consent to treatment, the next steps will be obtaining the records and scans needed to plan your personalized treatment.
Your recent MRI scans, a current scan or additional images, biopsy or surgical reports, pathology reports, and specially designed planning software are used to precisely determine the plan for treating your tumor. The radiosurgery team calibrates the equipment to match your personalized treatment plan, including the area to be treated and the dose of radiation to be given. In general, the area radiated includes the abnormal area with a tiny margin of surrounding normal tissue. The dose of radiation is centered over the entire volume of the target area. The radiation dose decreases rapidly as the distance away from the target area increases.
GENERAL INFO CYBERKNIFE AND RADIOSURGERY
- National Library of Medicine
- ABTA.org
- CyberknifeSupport.org/forum/
CYBERKNIFE IN OUR AREA: Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, NJ; Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ; and Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, Long Island.
- RiverviewMedicalCenter.com
- Winthrop.org
- OverlookHospital.org
STORY BY: Medical reporter Dr. Jay Adlersberg
This looks an interesting technology! Why did it fall from 52 weeks high level of $20? what is its intrinsic value? fair entry level? are you trading here? tia. GLLs
The way I see it, they (ARAY management) have at least one more quarter to steal us blind before any possible changes come from the next stockholders meeting. Are you seeing it any different?
West Coast Cancer Center Breaks Ground on New Building to House CyberKnife System
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that the Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center (CBCC) -- one of the nation's largest freestanding, physician owned and operated comprehensive cancer centers -- has purchased a CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System for its seven-acre campus in Bakersfield, Calif.
The CyberKnife System is the newest addition to a broad spectrum of technologies and treatments that CBCC offers cancer patients. The CyberKnife System will allow physicians to deliver targeted radiosurgery to a tumor located anywhere in the body from virtually unlimited positions. The CyberKnife System enables the physician to achieve unprecedented accuracy with sub-millimeter precision thus minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
"We have a philosophy and commitment to bringing the most promising treatments and the most sophisticated technology to our community as quickly as possible. The new CyberKnife System will allow us to treat patients who were untreatable in the past," said Dr. Ravi Patel, founder and chairman of CBCC. "This technology will make a significant difference in the quality of life for our patients and will give CBCC the capability to treat tumors that have previously been inoperable."
"With CBCC's purchase of CyberKnife System, we are increasing the access cancer patients have to cutting-edge treatment technology," said Eric P. Lindquist, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Accuray. "Accuray is proud to assist CBCC in their quest to provide patients with the most advanced cancer care available today."
About the CyberKnife(R) 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 50,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 140 systems have been installed in leading hospitals in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.accuray.com.
About CBCC, USA
Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center (CBCC) was founded by Dr. Ravi Patel in 1984 with the sole mission of providing compassionate care for diagnosis, treatment, patient education and prevention of cancer using a state-of-the-art treatment approach. CBCC's facilities, located in Bakersfield, Calif., occupy more than 75,000 sq. feet on a seven acre site. CBCC has been a leader in oncology in the areas of patient care, technology and clinical research. CBCC facilities treat more than 5,000 new patients per year and have more than 150,000 patient visits annually. Additional information is available on CBCC's website at http://www.cbccusa.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties associated with the medical device industry. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements relating to clinical studies, regulatory review and approval, and commercialization of products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available at the time those statements are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual performance and results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make include: market acceptance of products; competing products, the combination of our products with complementary technology; and other risks detailed from time to time under the heading "Risk Factors" in our report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 3, 2007 as updated from time to time by our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2008 when filed. The Company's actual results of operations may differ significantly from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements as a result of these and other factors. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual performance or results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.
Not widely known, but just one more reason to choose CyberKnife...
Some Prostate Cancer Treatments Can Spur the Disease
Friday, August 22, 2008 9:31 AM
http://www.newsmax.com/health/prostate_cancer_treatment/2008/08/22/124069.html?s=al&promo_code=6862-1
Some of the drugs given to many men during their fight against prostate cancer can actually spur some cancer cells to grow, researchers have found. The findings were published online this week in a pair of papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The results may help explain a phenomenon that has bedeviled patients for decades. Hormone therapy, a common treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer, generally keeps the cancer at bay for a year or two. But then, for reasons scientists have never understood, the treatment fails in patients whose disease has spread – the cancer begins to grow again, at a time when patients have few treatment options left.
The new findings by a team led by Chawnshang Chang, Ph.D., director of the George Whipple Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, help explain the process by showing that the androgen receptor, through which male hormones like testosterone work, is much more versatile than previously thought. Under certain conditions the molecule spurs growth, and at other times the molecule squelches growth – just like the same molecule does to hair in different locations on a man's head.
The new findings raise the possibility that under some conditions, some treatments designed to treat prostate cancer could instead remove one of the body's natural brakes on the spread of the disease in the body. The researchers stress that the results are based on laboratory studies and on findings in mice, and it's too soon to know yet whether the findings apply directly to prostate cancer in men.
Understanding the effects of the androgen receptor gives physicians a toehold in efforts to develop more effective treatments for men with prostate cancer. That would be welcome news for the one of every six men who will get the disease during his lifetime. More than 28,000 men die from the disease in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Men's risk from prostate cancer is about equal to women's risk from breast cancer: Each year, about the same number of men get prostate cancer as women get breast cancer, and their risk of dying from the diseases is about equal, according to ACS.
Chang's findings are most relevant for patients with advanced prostate cancer, who typically receive hormone therapy after other treatments such as surgery or radiation. With hormone therapy, physicians blunt the effects of male hormones like testosterone to bring the disease in the prostate to a halt. One form of hormone therapy works by blocking the androgen receptor. Androgen deprivation therapy is generally very effective for a year or two, but for reasons that no one has understood, the cancer ultimately returns.
"When a man receives hormone therapy, initially the treatment works well, and his PSA (prostate specific antigen) level goes down," said Edward Messing, M.D., a urologist and an author of the paper. "But inevitably, the PSA will start climbing again, and that is usually the first sign that the treatment is beginning to fail. It's a sign that the cancer in the prostate is making a comeback."
In work funded by the National Cancer Institute, Chang's team found that blocking the receptor indeed prevents some cells in the prostate from growing, just as scientists expected. But Chang's team unexpectedly found that blocking the receptor actually spurs other prostate cells to grow.
"The androgen receptor acts differently in different cells in prostate tissue," said Chang. "It's always been assumed that blocking the androgen receptor will stop all prostate cells from growing, but we have found that that's not the case. Since current treatment acts non-specifically on all the cells having androgen receptors in the prostate, blocking the androgen receptor will give mixed results."
The team found that, as expected, the androgen receptor in prostate support cells known as stromal cells stimulates growth of cells, including cancer cells, in the prostate. He also found, surprisingly, that the receptor actually acts as a tumor suppressor in epithelial cells known as basal cells in the prostate.
Then Chang's team knocked out the androgen receptor in specific sets of prostate cells and studied the results. As expected, when the molecule is turned off in stromal cells, growth of cancer cells in the prostate slows. But when the molecule is turned off in the epithelial cells, it removes one of the body's natural inhibitors that prevents prostate cancer cells from spreading, making cells more likely to invade other tissues.
"While the androgen receptor is really driving prostate cancer, in another sense it appears that the receptor also normally inhibits the spread of cancer cells. It seems to have a dual role. Manipulating the androgen receptor can increase or decrease either of these actions depending on precisely how it's done," said Messing.
Chang says the molecule's versatility in the prostate should not come as a surprise, since the molecule's function elsewhere depends on its location.
"The effects of the androgen receptor on hair growth in men vary dramatically depending on where in the body the receptor is working," said Chang. "When the receptor is very active in the mustache area, more hair grows. When it's very active on the top of the skull, toward the front, hair falls out and men become bald. And the hair on the back of the head is insensitive to the receptor. The effects of hormones depend on the location.
"We found that the same is true within the cells of the prostate itself," said Chang, who is a faculty member in the departments of Urology and Pathology and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.
Chang says it's likely that the androgen receptor works differently in different cells partly because the assortment of molecular colleagues it works with within the body changes from situation to situation. Like a foreman turning to a pool of employees to get certain jobs done, the androgen receptor taps different molecules in different situations, forming intricate complexes or groupings that then accomplish various tasks. The receptor works very quickly, assembling a team within seconds, accomplishing a task, then disbanding and making its helpers available to form a brand new team for another task.
Chang's team is working on ways to focus on these molecular "co-factors" as a way to target the androgen receptor differently in different cells, for instance, turning off the receptor in some cells while keeping it on in others, to fight prostate cancer. That type of cell-specific targeting is currently not possible.
The research in the laboratory involved tracking the disease in mice and also analyzing human prostate cancer cells in culture. Nevertheless, the work might include some hints for improving patient care. Possibilities include studying whether androgen suppression therapy might be used to target only specific cells within the prostate, as well as checking whether drugs designed to prevent cancer from spreading should be used in concert with hormone therapy.
"I call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing... All day you wait for the pitch you like,... The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, 'Swing. you bum!'"
W. Buffett
MedWatch Today: CyberKnife halts mother’s brain tumor
http://www.medwatchtoday.com/1713.htm
MedWatch Today - The official news and information site of Community Medical Centers, Fresno, California
Headaches, nausea, dizziness. Symptoms like these don’t seem so out of the ordinary for a mother dealing with the daily pressures of caring for a child with special needs. Luz Marina Knight was experiencing all three and thought it was probably just the stress of caring for her son, Kyle, who had been diagnosed with autism in 2005 at age 4.
Doctors told her she was experiencing migraine headaches, so she was referred to a neurologist for relief. But instead the symptoms intensified. Dizziness and nausea were so much a part of her daily life that she carried a bucket with her while driving.
It was when she started experiencing episodes of momentary blindness that she and her neurologist suspected something more serious was wrong. An MRI revealed a large, unusually aggressive tumor – a meningioma – was pressing on top of her brain, and as it grew and put pressure on the optic nerve, it was causing temporary blindness and severe headaches.
Her neurologist recommended immediate surgery to prevent permanent damage, and Knight grew fearful. “I was afraid that I wouldn’t be the same after the operation, that I wouldn’t be able to be a good mother to my son or that I would lose speech,” she said. “I even worried that my hair would not grow back.”
After the five-hour operation, Knight’s surgeon informed her husband that though the operation went well, the tumor was in a sensitive area so not all of it could be removed. He feared the tumor could spread, so more tests were required after her recovery.
“That night my husband asked the Lord for mercy,” she recalls. “He tells me that was the day he started to use Grecian Formula.”
Eight months later, Knight and her husband learned the tumor was indeed growing and a second operation would be required. “I was devastated with the thought of undergoing a second major surgery,” Knight said. “My poor hair was just growing back and I was already so tired caring for my son.”
The good news was the tumor was small enough to use a relatively new, less invasive surgery called CyberKnife.
Knight decided she wouldn’t surrender to the cancer, but she was wary of going through another surgery. “I knew that there were risks to the surgery, that a portion of my head would be shaved and that there was no guarantee it would cure my condition,” she said. “Then there would be a recovery period where my son would still need me.”
Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Steven Hysell, introduced her to radiation oncologist Dr. Douglas Wong, who explained the CyberKnife procedure. “Once I understood it, I knew that even though there were no guarantees, the operation would be less difficult this time and the chance for eradicating the tumor was greater than with conventional surgery,” she said. “With my knowledge and faith I was actually excited about the surgery.”
Knight, Dr. Wong, Dr. Hysell and the CyberKnife team began planning her treatment and details of her radiation delivery. During this process, a CT scan was performed to map Knight’s brain and the tumor, and a special mask was custom fitted for the CyberKnife procedure. During consultative visits with Drs. Hysell and Wong the surgery was explained in detail.
Over a five-day period using image-guidance and computer-controlled robotics, CyberKnife delivered radiation directly to the tumor in high doses. During the procedure more than 100 beams of high-energy radiation entered Knight’s head, attacking the tumor from different angles with sub-millimeter accuracy. Each session lasted only about an hour.
“To me, it is an amazing technology out of a science fiction movie,” she said. “It was always moving about as if it had an intelligence of its very own.”
Knight found the CyberKnife procedure was very different than her previous surgery, which involved drilling into her skull, one week in the intensive care unit and a three-month recovery. The procedure room was very comfortable and Knight said she was able to relax and listen to her favorite music.
“After five days, the CyberKnife surgery was completed, I only lost a small patch of hair and was I able to care for my son very soon after the surgery,” she said.
Four months later a follow-up MRI revealed good news – the tumor had shrunk and did not appear to be growing. She now needs only a periodic MRI to monitor the tumor.
This story was reported special by Suzanne Crosina-Sahm. She can be reached at MedWatchToday@communitymedical.org.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Patrick Swayze's Birthday Miracle (he owes his improved health to CK)
http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2008/08/patrick_swayzes_birthday_mirac.php
Posted by ExtraTV Staff on August 20, 2008 9:30 AM
A laughing and healthy-looking Patrick Swayze rang in his 56th birthday on the set of his new series, "The Beast," in Chicago. Swayze celebrated with wife Lisa Niemi and the cast and crew of his A&E FBI series -- and they all showed support for the "Point Break" star by wearing "Crazy for Swayze" shirts.
Just six months after revealing he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Patrick is "living life to the fullest," says Liz Crokin, who has been chronicling the actor's recovery on her website, TheBootsGirls.com. "He told me he was doing good -- he's gained weight, he looks great, he has an abundance of energy and he just looks amazing."
Patrick reportedly owes his improved health to a new machine called the cyber knife -- a breakthrough cancer treatment that delivers bursts of radiation with pinpoint accuracy.
Hospital receives $2 millon, its biggest gift (The Stamford Times)
** The da Vinci surgical system is a nice complement to the CyberKnife radiosurgery system **
http://www.thestamfordtimes.com/story/228130
By CHASE WRIGHT
cwright@thestamfordtimes.com
STAMFORD -- Stamford Hospital is continuing its commitment to less invasive treatments through acquisitions of the latest in robotic technology, and they're having no problem securing funding.
Earlier this week, the hospital announced it largest one-time single donation from a corporation; a $2 million grant courtesy of Odyssey Re Holdings Corp., a global property casualty insurer and reinsurer.
Chris Riendeau, senior vice president for fund development for the Stamford Hospital Foundation said a donation of this size from a corporation is highly unusual.
"For one, corporate giving practices have changed," he said. "Donations of this size are few and far between now."
The grant will go toward funding the hospital's July purchase of the da Vinci Surgical System.
Using a sophisticated robotic platform, the da Vinci Surgical System allows surgeons to make tiny and precise incisions they otherwise wouldn't be capable of without the aid of a robot.
Hospital officials applauded the generous donation. "Odyssey Re's generosity ensures the da Vinci Surgical System will greatly benefit the region," said Dr. Timothy S. Hall, Chairman of surgery at Stamford Hospital, in a statement. "It also assists Stamford Hospital in its commitment to offering area residents the latest, most advanced minimally invasive techniques to heal more quickly and with less pain."
Patients undergoing da Vinci treatment are offered all the potential benefits of a minimally invasive procedure, including less pain, less blood loss and less need for blood transfusions.
A da Vinci procedure can result in a shorter hospital stay, a quicker recovery and faster return to normal daily activities. Stamford Hospital anticipates offering da Vinci procedures in urology, cardiothoracic surgery, and women's health.
The da Vinci surgical system is a nice complement to the CyberKnife radiosurgery system, which was purchased in June, said Hall.
"With the hospital's recent investments in both the CyberKnife radiosurgery system and now the da Vinci Surgical System, Stamford Hospital is now the most technologically advanced institution in the region for cancer therapy and minimally invasive surgery, regardless of the complexity," said Hall in a statement.
Riendeau said he's happy about Odyssey Re's investment in the community.
"Clearly they're a Stamford-based company and they recognize that health care is one of the top priorities of the community where they work," he said.
Odyssey Re Holdings Corp. is a global underwriter of property and casualty treaty and facultative reinsurance, based in Stamford since 1999.
Spinal reirradiation using the Cyberknife-preliminary efficacy from a single institution
http://meeting.ascopubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/26/15_suppl/2059
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2008 ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings (Post-Meeting Edition).
Vol 26, No 15S (May 20 Supplement), 2008: 2059
© 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology
Abstract
J. A. Haas, M. R. Witten, J. R. Matera, E. P. Montchal, J. A. Brown, M. Brisman, N. Epstein, J. Lauritano, K. Episcopia and A. J. Katz
Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, NY
2059
BACKGROUND: Spinal cord tolerance to prior radiation is a major limiting factor in reirradiating patients with spine metastases that have relapsed or progressed in a prior treated field due to concerns about toxicity. The accepted total tolerance dose of the spinal cord is approximately 5,000 cGy in conventional fractionation (180 cGy/day). This dose is reported to cause a 5% risk of myelitis.
METHODS: 13 consecutive patients who had received prior external beam radiation to the spine and who were subsequently retreated with Cyberknife radiosurgery in 2005–2006 were reviewed. The radiation dose to the spinal cord and cauda equina given during the external beam and Cyberknife treatments were measured. The doses were also converted into 180 cGy equivalent doses using alpha/beta corrections and were also measured. Local control as measured by pre and post treatment imaging is reported.
RESULTS: The median follow up was 9.1 months. The median external beam dose to the spinal cord was 3,811 cGy. The median fraction size was 238 cGy. The median prescribed dose using the Cyberknife for retreatment was 2,030 cGy. The median dose per fraction using the Cyberknife was 500 cGy. The median dose to 5% of the spinal cord (D05) from the Cyberknife was 1171 cGy. The median dose to the spinal cord converted to 180 cGy/day equivalent from the prior external radiation was 4,228 cGy. The median dose to the D05 of the spinal cord from the Cyberknife converted to 180 cGy/day equivalent was 1,641 cGy. The median total cumulative dose to the spinal cord from both external beam and Cyberknife was 5,171 cGy. The median total cumulative dose to the spinal cord from both external beam and Cyberknife converted to 180 cGy/day equivalent was 5,889 cGy. Local control was achieved in 13/13 patients (100%) No patients suffered from treatment related complications from the retreatment of the spinal cord.
CONCLUSIONS: Cancer patients with recurrent or progressive disease after prior external beam radiation can be safely retreated using the Cyberknife. Cyberknife radiosurgery provides local control and minimal risk of radiation induced myelopathy during the patient's lifetime. Cyberknife should be considered a safe treatment option for retreating patients who have relapsed or progressed in the treated spine after prior external beam radiation.
HOI-19 news (ABC): Day of the Dozer
http://www.hoinews.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=177243
Event will help benefit Community Cancer Center in Normal
By Mark Welp
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at 5:00 p.m.
NORMAL -- There’s a unique opportunity this weekend for your kids to live out a fantasy and help fight a deadly disease.
The Community Cancer Center in Normal is sponsoring the eighth annual Day of the Dozer.
Kids can actually ride in bulldozers, dump trucks and other heavy construction equipment.
Proceeds will benefit the Community Cancer Center which offers support and medical services including the state of the art cyberknife.
“Unlike traditional radiation, where we deliver 30 to 45 treatments, the cyber knife uses one to five treatments. It’s very targeted radiation so we can deliver it at a very high dose and yet protect surrounding tissue,” said Barb Nathan of the Community Cancer Center.
Day of the Dozer is Saturday, August 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Interstate Center in Bloomington.
Tickets are $5.
Oscoda woman undergoes new CyberKnife treatment for tumor
http://www.oscodapress.com/articles/2008/08/20/news/news02.txt
Oscoda Press
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
by Karen Rouse
OSCODA — The telephone call came while she was at work on April 30. After experiencing mysterious physical symptoms for years, Jackie Anderson of Oscoda finally knew what was wrong - a benign brain tumor.
Anderson remembered her first reaction was that of relief that the tumor, officially named meningnoma, was not the same type that claimed the life of Jeff Thornton, her brother, in 1996.
Anderson, who is a registered nurse at District Health Department No. 2 in Tawas City, said that a co-worker reacted to the news more dramatically than she did. Anderson’s immediate concern was to “Get it taken care of”.
Ultimately, she did just that by undergoing treatment from the new cancer-fighting CyberKnife technology offered by St. Mary’s Medical Center of Michigan in Saginaw. The treatment option was newly available at the same time as her diagnosis - in late April.
She was the 29th patient to undergo the treatment at St. Mary’s. Only one other hospital in the state offers the technology. Located further south in Ann Arbor is St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, the first to offer the radiosurgery in Michigan.
“Both my husband and daughter view that the diagnosis came at a time when it was a blessing. Three years ago, when my symptoms were discovered, the CyberKnife had not yet been invented,” said Anderson.
A tingling in her upper lip began in October 2004, prompting a sinus CAT scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain that did not show any abnormalities, according to physicians.
She remembers experiencing mild headaches five days out of seven, that were treated by medication, and wondering if her constant looking at medical monitors at work contributed to the migraine manifestations.
Over time, the tingling became worse and migrated to her left eye when Anderson was diagnosed with parathesia. She experienced visual disturbances, dizziness and double vision. The eye began to droop.
More tests were completed and, in April, the diagnosis was made by her neurologist, Jorge Gonzalez, M.D., of Alpena. Although benign, the tumor was wrapped around the carotid artery and four facial nerves, three that control eye movement. Gonzalez referred Anderson to neurosurgeon E. Malcolm Fields, M.D., at St. Mary’s Seton Cancer Institute.
Concerns about the location of the tumor surfaced. Although not life altering, according to physicians, the tumor was inoperable because it was located in the optic chasm.
Fields said that Anderson was a candidate for CyberKnife and that he would take her medical chart to the CyberKnife team for review the very next day. The team agreed to take on Anderson’s case. Interestingly, Anderson was told, when the physicians reviewed the older MRI completed in January 2005, the tumor was indeed present, but missed.
According to hospital literature, CyberKnife radiosurgery is a painless, noninvasive radiation treatment that may be used as an alternative to open surgery in certain cases. The CyberKnife uses image-guided robotics to noninvasively destroy tumors and other lesions with multiple beams of high-energy radiation. The cumulative effect of all the beams at the target results in the lesion receiving a very high dose of radiation while nearby normal tissue is preserved.
The sub-millimeter clinical accuracy is so precise, it can match the shape of small complex tumors located in critical structures. The ability allows physicians to treat tumors that may be considered inoperable or untreatable with other radiosurgery systems.
Anderson sought a second opinion from University of Michigan Hospital specialists before making her decision to proceed with the new technology.
A higher resolution MRI was ordered to see how close the tumor was to the optic nerve. If the tumor was too close, traditional radiation treatments could cause blindness. The second-opinion consult prescribed a plan for Anderson to receive 30 radiation treatments within a six-week period.
The CyberKnife treatment would require five sessions during a one-week period. Her decision was quickly made. CyberKnife treatments began at Seton the day after her consultation.
A plastic mesh mask was created, molded to fit her head and was used to immobilize her skull by securing the mask to the operating table.
“After each treatment, I would just get up and leave,” said Anderson.
Patients benefit from the technology as the CyberKnife treatment is a bloodless procedure requiring no incisions, pain, anesthesia, sterotactic frame or recovery time. There is an immediate return to normal activity.
The most uncomfortable part about the 80-minute sessions, she recalled, was to be flat on her back with no cushioning beneath her head and then having to breathe through her nose the whole time. “Yoga really helped me through that,” she said about one of her weekly activities.
Anderson said that she will not know how much of the tumor is gone until swelling in the brain subsides and another MRI can be done, probably eight weeks after her mid-June treatments.
“We’re very hopeful,” she expressed. “We’re praying that the tumor will shrink and my symptoms are alleviated.”
She realizes tumor cells can take up to one year to be shed and that she was only promised that the tumor would be killed, she said.
“I would say the treatment was a huge success,” Anderson claims matter-of-factly.
According to Anderson, she no longer has the double vision or droopy eyelids, but the headache remains. She says that the prognosis is very good.
“I really think it went as well as it did because of all my family and friends praying for me,” she said and added that “everyone was really wonderful at Seton.”
The 51-year-old patient grew up on Hull Island in Oscoda and graduated from Oscoda High School in 1975. She has been married for 31 years to Thomas Anderson, an Anglican priest at Hope Anglican Church in Oscoda and English teacher at OHS. Together, they have four children, one daughter-in-law and “one grand-dog.”
"I call investing the greatest business in the world because you never have to swing... All day you wait for the pitch you like,... The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, 'Swing. you bum!'"
W. Buffett
Accuray Incorporated F4Q08 (Qtr End 06/28/08) Earnings Call Transcript
Accuray Incorporated (ARAY)
F4Q08 Earnings Call
August 19, 2008 5:00 pm ET
Executives
Tom Rathjen - Vice President of Investor Relations
Euan S. Thomson – President and Chief Executive Officer
Robert McNamara – Chief Financial Officer
Analysts
Tom Gunderson – Piper Jaffray
Thijs Spoor – JPMorgan
Eric Schneider – UBS
Junaid Husain – Soleil
Peter Bye – Jefferies & Company
Amit Hazan – Oppenheimer
Presentation
Operator
Welcome to Accuray Incorporated’s earnings conference call for the fourth quarter fiscal year 2008 ended June 28, 2008. (Operator Instructions) At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Tom Rathjen, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Tom Rathjen
Thank you for joining us today for Accuray's fourth quarter of fiscal year-end 2008 conference call. Joining us this afternoon is Dr. Euan Thomson, Accuray's President and Chief Executive Officer plus Bob McNamara, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
As we did last quarter, we will again be referring to financial data which is found on two slides and a PDF file on the Investor Relations page of the Accuray website at www.accuray.com. Please log on to this site to view this information.
Before we begin, I need to remind you that except for the historical information, the information that follows contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include the matters described in the risk factors section of our report on Form 10-K for 2007 fiscal year as updated from time to time by our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other filings with the Securities Exchange Commission including our annual report on Form 10-K for the 2008 fiscal year which will be filed in September of 2008.
And now I would like to turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Euan Thomson.
Euan Thomson
We’ll start the call with a business overview including an update on clinical data on utilization, reimbursement, and the business environment of the CyberKnife as we look forward into fiscal 2009. Bob McNamara, our Chief Financial Officer, will then provide a detailed report of our financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2008. We will then be happy to open the call and take questions.
First let me share some of the financial highlights. Total revenue for the quarter was $50.9 million, a 16% increase over the same period last year. For the full year fiscal 2008, revenue increased 50% to $210.4 million in line with our guidance. Net income for the quarter was $191,000 contributing to our first full year of profitability, with fiscal 2008 net income of $5.4 million or $0.09 per diluted share. Our recurring services revenue grew to $11.8 million in the quarter and $38.8 million for the year. On an annual basis, this represents a 110% increase from the previous year. This growth in recurring services revenue is a very positive result, and services remain a key factor in our future growth profile.
We had an extremely successful quarter with the new orders. In total 28 new contracts are added to backlog in the quarter, representing a total value of $115.5 million. At the end of fiscal 2008, our total backlog was $647 million. New orders contributed $68 million directly to non-contingent backlog, and importantly the proportion of non-contingent backlog increased to 71% of the total or $460 million.
During the quarter, we installed six CyberKnife systems, three in the United States, one in Japan, and two in the rest of Asia, bringing the worldwide installed base to 140.
Before I get into some specific updates for the quarter, I’d like to take a moment to update you on the sales environment for dedicated radiosurgery systems in the United States. I’ll share with you some of the strategic steps we’ve taken to improve the quality of and increase the rate at which we sign new sales contracts. We’ve been very open about the challenges that we’ve encountered in the sales and installation environment as we progressed through fiscal 2008. Specifically, the entrepreneurial freestanding radiation treatment center market was challenged by proposed regulatory changes, the general economy, and the credit environment. These factors combined to place pressure on business plan for these centers, and during the year, we felt the need to reevaluate the timing of their installations, and in some cases, remove their contracts from backlog.
During fiscal 2008, we believe we have made significant progress in actively addressing this situation by refocusing our sales professionals on more established healthcare providers, particularly the hospitals. In parallel, we’ve also carefully examined our backlog each quarter and have removed any contracts that no longer meet our criteria for inclusion. Our sales focus on hospital-based customers. This resulted in a steady enhancement of backlog quality through the year as evidenced by the continued growth of our non-contingent backlog.
As further evidence of the success of our sales team in refocusing their efforts, I can reveal that of the 28 new contracts that we placed into backlog during the fiscal fourth quarter, 24 are associated with hospitals and other high-quality medical institutions, far less affected by the issues associated with more entrepreneurial sites.
In the US, we also have had several strategic successes. I can announce today that we’ve signed a sales contract with Kaiser Foundation Hospitals to provide CyberKnife to their cancer center in South San Francisco. This is a key sale since it is widely known that nonprofit healthcare providers such as Kaiser are motivated by demonstrated clinical value.
I’m also pleased to reveal that during fiscal 2008, we signed agreements with 15 academic centers, 3 in the US and 12 international, and overall our international business continues to be exceptionally strong. Of the 28 new contracts entered into backlog during the quarter, 17 were international contracts. Of particular note, we recently announced the Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow established CyberKnife. During the past year, we also announced the first CyberKnife sales in India, Switzerland, and Canada, further expanding our international reach.
Today, I can also announce that Lospedale San Bartolo in Vicenza will be installing a second CyberKnife system. This is our first confirmed order for a second CyberKnife from a European site, and it is further validation of the growing strength of our clinical program leading to increased demand for treatments. The continued strengthening of our international profile is another key aspect of our future success. As I stated before, international markets are driven very much on clinical validation of new technologies, and our international success is therefore a good indicator of the strengthening of our clinical program. We’ll continue to invest in international business in 2009, specifically we will continue to expand our sales coverage to increase our sales penetration in new market.
In summary, there continues to be a significant in growing sales opportunity for the CyberKnife, and we are encouraged by the robust number of leads we have in our sales pipeline and the clinical knowledge experience and capability of our customer base.
As we have explained in recent conference calls, the sales process of CyberKnife is significantly different to that of traditional radiation therapy equipment. Radiation therapy equipment is most often sold as a replacement to an existing machine that is at the end of its useful life, and in most cases, the budget and space has already been established. Because CyberKnife is still a relatively new technology with new clinical applications, we have little to no replacement business, and often there is no budget or space allocated for dedicated stereotactic body radiosurgery program at our customer sites when we initiate the sales relationship. In addition to being a challenge to completion of sales, this can also add a layer of complexity in converting a sale to an installation.
Following on the recent success of our sales program in the fourth quarter, we plan during fiscal 2009 to expand our resources in the sales support area with a goal accelerating the process turning contracts into installs. This has historically taken longer in the hospital market than in the freestanding market, so we are conscious that as the profile of our customer base changes, we’ll need to work hard on accelerating instillations.
We are currently building a team of dedicated relationship managers who will assist our customers with developing instillation programs following the signing of the CyberKnife contract. The new team will assess and evaluate each customer situation as the contract moves towards installation, addressing and identifying any specific issues that may arise. Our intention is that this initiative will also improve both our visibility and capability in forecasting revenue based on an enhanced customer relationship and better understanding of their individual needs and challenges during the pre-installation process.
I would like to now give you brief update in our treatment planning service business which we announced in the third quarter of fiscal 2008. We now have proof of concept in this service and have had our first plan accepted by our beta partner, Georgetown University Hospital. Our focus at this point has been on ensuring that we can deliver plans of the highest quality.
During fiscal 2009, we’ll begin to focus on growing volume and demand. While we do not expect significant revenue from this service during fiscal 2009, we do expect the service to begin to add to our revenue stream in the mid to long term. Immediate strategic value of the treatment planning service is that it will increase the treatment planning capacity of our customers and therefore increase their patient throughput. This is particularly important at a time when there is a worldwide shortage of medical physics personnel which can cause a a barrier of entry for prospective CyberKnife customers.
The growing strength of our clinical program is reflected by the growing number of CyberKnife publications. In fiscal 2008, there were 76 papers written on various clinical applications of the CyberKnife compared to 42 in fiscal 2007. Overall, there are now close to 300 clinical papers available demonstrating the unique benefits of CyberKnife radiosurgery. We are particularly pleased to report that the clinical study comparing treatment outcomes with surgery versus CyberKnife treatment in early-stage operable lung cancer with its team lead by MD Anderson Cancer Center will begin enrollment this fall.
Also the clinical study of inoperable lung patients was recently published in the July issue of Clinical Lung Cancer by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. This significant study further demonstrated the clinical superiority of the CyberKnife in the treatment of lung cancer. This study was conducted on 51 patients with a median followup time of 12 months, and it concludes that the CyberKnife is an effective treatment for patients with medically inoperable recurrent or metastatic lung cancer. The data were compelling. Local control with 85% of stage I non-small-cell lung cancer, 92% for recurrent lung cancer, and 62% for lung metastases. The study goes on to compare these results with conventional radiation therapy which is typically associated with poor local control rates in similar patients. This is clearly a significant publication and further validates CyberKnife’s efficacy in treating lung cancer.
Articles such as the UPMC publication definitely helped to drive clinical utilization and adoption by the medical community, as evidenced by the utilization trends at our installed CyberKnife sites. On this topic, I can announce today that we recently reached a major clinical milestone with more than 50,000 patients now treated on the CyberKnife. During fiscal 2008 alone, approximately 17,000 patients were treated, representing more than one third of the total patients ever treated on the CyberKnife, and the growth area is still extracranial radiosurgery, the field created by the CyberKnife. Approximately 56% of CyberKnife treatments in the United States are now being delivered to extracranial sites.
In March, we announced approximately 90% of worldwide CyberKnife centers outside of Japan were treating lung cancer. CyberKnife is particular promising in the lungs because of the capabilities of our real-time tracking and our synchrony system, which automatically tracks and corrects tumor movement during treatment. During fiscal 2008, worldwide CyberKnife utilization for lung cancer grew by approximately 50% compared to fiscal 2007, and the total number of patients treated surpassed 6000.
We also continue to see significant growth in CyberKnife utilization to treat prostate cancer. Last quarter, I discussed the results of a study published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics, known as the red journal, that demonstrated that the CyberKnife’s clinical flexibility enabled it to noninvasively deliver complex high-dose brachytherapy-like radiation doses to the prostate without the need for hospitalization and anesthesia. We are also eagerly awaiting the release of long-term clinical studies focused on the treatment of prostate cancer with the CyberKnife. We believe that the publication of these results will be an essential foundation to accelerated acceptance of the CyberKnife as the treatment of choice for prostate cancer.
However, even in the advance of these publications, we are seeing incredible changes in clinical practice. During fiscal 2008, we saw approximately 100% increase in the number of patients treated compared to fiscal 2007. In fact, more than half the patients ever treated for prostate cancer using the CyberKnife were treated in fiscal 2008. This is a remarkable acceptance profile and it reflects increasing confidence in CyberKnife radiosurgery for this application.
Another area where we have observed very strong traction in clinical utilization is treatment of liver cancer. During fiscal 2008, the number liver cancer treatments on the CyberKnife worldwide increased approximately 80%. Liver cancer represents a robust opportunity for growth especially in the Asian market where demographics are weighted towards the high incidence of liver cancer than in other parts of the world. In fact, acceptance of the CyberKnife for treatment of liver cancer already appears to be stronger internationally with international growth being 133% compared to fiscal year 2007. This compared with 52% growth in treatment numbers over the same time period in the US.
Very recently we’ve seen much publicity around the use of the CyberKnife for treatment of pancreatic cancer. Although incidence of pancreatic cancer is fortunately relatively low compared to some of the other applications, we continue to hope that CyberKnife might have an important role to play. Possibly in response to the publicity around this application, we saw significant growth in CyberKnife utilization for pancreatic cancer in Q4. A record number of patients were treated in this quarter, and US numbers increased by approximately 40% as compared to the same time period last year.
Moving on to technological improvement, it’s an important aspect of our business model to support the expansion of the clinical applications of CyberKnife with meaningful hardware and software upgrades. We recently announced that the first patients were treated using the next-generation CyberKnife at the Oklahoma CyberKnife Center Tulsa. This next-generation system features new technologies and system upgrades announced at the 2007 ASTRO annual meeting allowing it to deliver state of the art radiosurgery with significantly reduced treatment planning and delivery times.
In fact, the first patient treatment which was for an intracranial lesion was completed in only 16 minutes, and the next patient treated for non-small-cell lung cancer required only 27 minutes. Both of these times represent significant reductions over previously observed treatment times. This is a significant improvement in patient throughput allowing healthcare providers to increase revenue-generating opportunities and reduce expenses.
One of the customers at the site commented that this new CyberKnife system configuration “allows delivery of radiosurgery almost as fast as radiation therapy treatments.” To put this comment in perspective, although radiation therapy is only an option for a subset CyberKnife patients, typical radiation therapy systems are often quoted as being faster than the CyberKnife system. What is missed in this comparison is that radiation therapy patients are generally required to visit the treatment center up to 40 times.
CyberKnife radiosurgery is rarely used for more than 5 treatments in as many days. With individual treatment times close to being comfortable and only 1 to 5 treatment visits for the CyberKnife compared to 40 or so treatments of radiation therapy, there are huge advantages to patients including far less disruption to their daily lives. We will continue to gather data on treatment times as the number of installations of the next-generation CyberKnife increases. This initial data was very encouraging. It’s great news for patients and healthcare providers.
While we hear reports of competitive products having the ability to perform full body radiosurgery, the fact remains that the CyberKnife clearly dominates this space. Once a healthcare center makes a decision to initiate a dedicated full-time radiosurgery practice, CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the overwhelming choice. It is still the case that the competition that we see from the providers of so called hybrid systems is not from a technological standpoint; rather, it’s a competition for budget and/or physical space within a hospital. The CyberKnife technologies are developed, and we continue to protect our innovations with robust intellectual property strategy. The CyberKnife and its related software are now protected by 30 issued US patents.
I’d now like to take a few moments to discuss recent updates on the reimbursement environment for treatment with the CyberKnife. CMS has proposed Medicare reimbursement rate charges pertaining to the year 2009. Outpatient technical rates include an average of 6% reduction for robotic radiosurgery, in line with reimbursement changes across the radiosurgery and radiation therapy sectors. Professional fees are projected to change very little, and freestanding center payment rates continue to be priced by the regional carriers as in 2007 and 2008. These changes and adjustments do not seem to have affected our customers’ interest in the CyberKnife.
On the private payer front, we continue to make progress towards widespread support of extracranial radiosurgery. Blue Shield of California recently updated its policy to expand preauthorized coverage for robotic radiosurgery to brain, liver, lung, spine, and prostate cancer, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana recently expanded that coverage to include spinal and lung treatments.
During fiscal 2009, we planned to launch an enhanced strategy to engage in discussions with private insurers about the clinical and economic benefits of the CyberKnife. We feel that this initiative is timely as a result of the ever-expanding body of clinical literature on CyberKnife treatments. We hope and believe that this strategy will lead to further acceleration in coverage by insurance plans for the extracranial indications of CyberKnife.
Finally, before I hand over to Bob for financial summary, I’d like to draw your attention to our recent significant breakthrough in Japan. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, we obtained regulatory approval in Japan, known as a Shonin to market the CyberKnife for use in treatment of extracranial tumors. This is a culmination of many years’ work and effectively opens up what is still widely viewed as the largest market outside of the United States. We already have 20 units installed in Japan for treatment of intracranial head and neck tumors, and there is widespread knowledge and experience of CyberKnife technology. We’re currently working with our Japanese distributor to upgrade some of the systems already installed in Japan to support the expanded extracranial use and expect that these upgraded systems will contribute to our increased volumes in that market and serve as the foundation for the launch of our extracranial radiosurgery sales campaign.
To summarize, we believe we are well positioned to increase our leadership position in the expanding radiosurgery market as we continue to build evidence that the CyberKnife is changing the cancer treatment paradigm, and in many cases can replace surgery and/or radiation therapy. During fiscal 2008, we weathered the majority of the effects of a rapid change in US market conditions, while still producing revenue growth of 50%. We feel that our Q4 sales results are extremely encouraging and demonstrate that we have successfully refocused our US sales strategy on hospital customers while the international markets, which have been relatively unaffected by the US’ challenging conditions, have shown excellent sustainable sales growth.
Now, let’s turn the call over to Bob who will review our financial results.
Robert McNamara
This afternoon, I will review our financial operating results for the fourth quarter and 2008 fiscal year end.
Total revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter was $50.9 million, a 13% sequential decline from Q3 but a 16% increase over fourth quarter of last year. Accuray recorded net income of $191,000 for the quarter and was breakeven on a per diluted share basis, compared to net income of $502,000, or $0.01 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of last year.
During the fourth quarter, Accuray recorded a non-cash stock-based compensation charge of $4.1 million, or $0.07 per diluted share. It is impotant to keep in mind that these are non-cash charges, approximately 90% of which are the results of stock-based grants during fiscal 2007 and earlier periods.
Total revenue for full fiscal year 2008 was $210.4 million, a 50% increase over fiscal 2007. While we are pleased with this growth, we recognize that this is at the low end of the revenue range we provided at the last earnings call. This illustrates various challenges we face each and every quarter. For example, one CyberKnife that was scheduled to be installed during the quarter had to be delayed when contractors discovered that the soil was not up to specifications and additional concrete needed to be poured. In another case, an international customer pushed out installation by at least 6 months because of permit and personnel issues not foreseen earlier.
Net income for the year 2008 was $5.4 million, or $0.09 per diluted per share. This compares favorably to last year’s loss of $5.6 million, or a loss of $0.18 per diluted share. For the year, Accuray recorded non-cash stock-based compensation charges of $16.9 million, or $0.28 per diluted share.
Taking a closer look at revenue for the fourth quarter, CyberKnife product sales generated $35.6 million. The sequential decrease from the third quarter was primarily due to the significant revenue in the third quarter from the sale of 8 shared ownership programs. Besides, these side issues that I previously discussed also affected the quarter.
Services revenue was $11.8 million, or 23% of total revenue for the quarter, marking a year-over-year increase of 110%. As a reminder, services revenue is primarily associated with long-term maintenance agreements, generally over 4 years with revenue recognized ratably over the respective service period. This important stream of predictable recurring revenue continues to increase as a percentage of total revenue.
Shared ownership contributed $2.2 million for the fourth quarter, a 19% sequential decrease primarily as a result of shared ownership buyouts in previous quarters of 2008. During the fourth quarter, two shared ownership systems were bought out by their respective customers, and one new system was installed, yielding 3 total shared ownership programs installed at the end of the fiscal year. Going forward, we anticipate revenues from our shared ownership arrangement to comprise a small part of our ongoing business; however, it continues to be our policy to encourage CyberKnife ownership with our shared ownership program as a means of transitioning to full purchase ownership. As we’ve said we anticipate eventual buyout of these units before or after installation.
Other revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter was $1.4 million, consisting primarily of upgrade products sold into the Japanese market. Fourth quarter revenue contribution from legacy platinum accounts converted from deferred revenue was $9.8 million. Of this $9.8 million, $6.3 million was from Platinum CyberKnife systems. As you recall, once the sixth and final upgrade has been installed on these contracts, we then ratably recognize the value of that agreement over the remaining life of that contract. Exiting the fourth quarter, all 30 of these legacy platinum systems are installed. We’ve recognized all the revenue on two systems, and we are currently recognizing revenue on 17 systems. Of the remaining 11 systems, most of have less than 2 upgrades to deliver before we begin to recognize that revenue, and we estimate having all platinum-related upgrades delivered by the end of fiscal year 2010.
Accuray’s gross margin improved to 52.8% for the fourth quarter, primarily due to product mix and fewer shared ownership buyouts compared to the previous quarter. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $27.5 million, or 54% of revenue, a year over year improvement of 4%. Our investment in research and development was $8.4 million, or 17% of total revenue, representing our continued focus and investment in this very important area.
During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, Accuray booked 28 new contracts into backlog with a value of $115.5 million. Of the new contracts, 17 were from international customers, six of which are within our European operations. The strength of international contracts is evidence of the growing demand for CyberKnife systems outside the US as well as the successful selling effort from our sales team. Of these 28 orders, 24 were operational in nature, which we categorize as hospital based or experienced CyberKnife System users. This reinforces Euan’s point that our sales force is refocused on selling into the more stable hospital based environment.
Moving to installations, six CyberKnife systems were installed during the quarter, three in the US, one in Japan, and two in the rest of Asia. This brings the worldwide CyberKnife installation base to 140. The geographical breakdown at the end of the quarter was as follows: 90 systems in the Americas, 12 systems in Europe, 20 systems in Japan, and 18 systems in the rest of Asia. As we’ve discussed in previous quarters, we recognize revenue upon installation of CyberKnife when Accuray is responsible for doing the install. For those international customers working through distributors who are responsible for installation,
Accuray recognizes revenue upon shipment to the end user. With these distributor sales, it is important to keep in mind that there’s often a period of time between shipment and installation of the CyberKnife unit.
During the fourth quarter, we recognized revenue on 12 systems, 3 of which were in Asia, 1 in Europe, and 8 in the US. Of these 8 US revenue systems, 3 were new system installations, 2 were shared ownership buyouts, 1 was a new shared ownership installation, and 2 were the initiation of revenue from legacy platinum accounts.
Moving to backlog, I’d like to draw your attention to the two charts that have been placed on the Investor Relations page of the Accuray website. At the end of the fourth quarter, Accuray’s backlog grew $45 million to $647 million, with $359 million associated with contracts for CyberKnife systems, $255 million associated with long-term service contracts, and $33 million for shared ownership program contracts. As we established last quarter, this chart provides further transparency into our backlog segmentation. As you can see, of the $647 million in total backlog, $460 million, or 71 percent is associated with non-contingent contracts. This reflects a net increase of $74 million, or a 19% increase into the non-contingent category. The remaining 29%, or $187 million of backlog, are contracts which may include standard contingencies such as board approval or certificates of need. Of this contingent segment, more than half represent operational accounts, principally hospital-based customers.
Now, I’d like to call your attention to the second chart shown on our Investor Relations website, again in an effort to provide greater detail on backlog. This bar chart shows non-contingent and contingent backlog trends over the last 8 quarters. A few key points to note: One, total backlog continues to increase annually though with some quarterly fluctuation; two, non-contingent backlog shown in blue increases annually with some quarterly fluctuations and is generally increasing as a percentage of total backlog; and three, contingent backlog shown in red peaked earlier in the year but has decreased the last two quarter and hence has been a small percentage of total backlog. The net result of these trends is that backlog is of a higher quality with a greater degree of certainty of becoming revenue. Our challenge is less with the revenue with the revenue itself, but the timing of that revenue, which depends so much on the customer’s build-out of the facility.
Of the 28 orders that went into backlog for the fourth quarter, 18 of these, or 64%, went directly into non-contingent backlog, which represents $68 million. In addition, approximately $50 million moved from contingent backlog into non-contingent backlog. In total, $118 million flowed into the non-contingent backlog this quarter.
Finally, we did have 8 orders which we adjusted out of contingent backlog, either because we received notification from the customer that the order was cancelled or our confidence level decreased to a level where future revenue recognition is currently in question. Of these 8 orders, all were within the contingent category. The total value of these adjustments was approximately $39 million. Again, all of these adjustments came out of contingent backlog and are reflected in the balance shown on the chart.
Reviewing Accuray’s balance sheet, total cash and investments at the end of June 2008 was $159.5 million. This consists of cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, and approximately $37.0 million in long-term investments. Deferred revenue was $114.2 million, with $87.5 million in current deferred revenues. Total assets at the end of the quarter were $295 million, and the company continued to have zero debt.
Last August, Accuray’s board of directors approved a stock repurchase plan providing the company with the ability to acquire up to $25 million worth of its common shares in the open market. During the fiscal fourth quarter, we purchased approximately 260,000 shares of Accuray stock for $2.3 million. For the fiscal year ended June 2008, we purchased approximately 2.1 million shares of Accuray stock for $24 million. Hence, we have just over $1 million remaining in the program.
Turning to guidance, based upon projected installations and other anticipated revenue for the upcoming year, we believe that total revenue for fiscal 2009 will be in the range of $230 million to $250 million. While we are offering topline guidance for the fiscal year, the movement of systems from one quarter to the next can have a significant effect on revenue in a particular quarter. We remain dependent upon our customers to build out an appropriate facility to house the CyberKnife and cannot install the system until construction is completed.
With that, I will turn the call back to Euan.
Euan Thomson
We’ll now open the call for questions.
Question-and-answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Tom Gunderson with Piper Jaffray.
Tom Gunderson – Piper Jaffray
For my two questions, one would be, Euan, six units shipped, we’ve got a tough economy out there, these are profit centers for hospitals. Our eyeball on this would have been that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 or 16 units that were aged long enough that could have been activated. What do you think is going on in the market out there that only six in a quarter are being activated, when the need seems so great?
Euan Thomson
I think it was 8 units shipped, as I recall, and six completed installation. I think that generally demand is high. The trouble is that we only have relatively small numbers involved right now, and I think what you’re seeing there will still be quarterly fluctuations. The overall trend as we’ve gone through the year is we had to build out the non-contingent element of our backlog. In our original installations at times during the year, we’ve been fairly open about. We certainly had more systems, and because of the environmental changes that took place, we had to remove those from our installation program, but I think we’re coming through that now. We’re seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. It will obviously take a while for those systems that we brought into backlog in Q4 to push their way all the way to revenue, but these quarterly fluctuations will really always be there. They are just dependent on so many factors as Bob indicated, things changing on the permitting line for a particular site, delays in construction, changes in personnel…there’re just so many factors out of our control. What we will be doing, though, as I mentioned in my script is we are definitively investing in this area, both to speed up the installation process and to give ourselves a better handle on exactly when these systems will go in, and the people that I talked about bringing into the Accuray team are really people who will take over after the sale is completed, start to build a relationship not just with the doctor who is interested in buying but with the facilities team at a hospital that is responsible for completing the construction program, and I think in that way, we’ll definitely be able to have better visibility, and I hope and believe that we’ll also be able to decrease the time that our systems sit in non-contingent backlog.
Tom Gunderson – Piper Jaffray
For the second quarter, Japan, can you help us a little bit to understand what the reimbursement picture is there? Traditionally with other medical devices, you get regulatory approval, but then there’s a log of where there is a reimbursement. As you go from intracranial to extracranial, are there any other hoops that you have to jump through to get reimbursement for that?
Euan Thomson
We have cranial reimbursement already, systems that have been around there for some time. We do have a process to go through now as it relates to extracranial reimbursement. We haven’t started that process off. We’re working with our distributor on that to get things moving along. I think on the good side we do have a very strong clinical knowledge. A lot of the existing uses, in particular the CyberKnife, have been aware that it has been pending, and I think the next phase of that market is ready to get some of the existing sites up and running with extracranial treatment, get some local experience, and then they can help us with the reimbursement enquiries and the reimbursement applications as they come through.
Operator
Our next question comes from Tycho Peterson with J.P. Morgan.
Thijs Spoor – JPMorgan
This is Thijs Spoor sitting in for Tycho. Thanks for taking the question. Just a question about the new CyberKnife system that you have coming out. Is that a technical upgrade, is that a software upgrade? Can you give us some color around how that will impact the current customers in backlog or current customers and sort of a margin relation to that, if it’s more of a physical versus software component?
Euan Thomson
Well, it’s actually a combination of both. These are the upgrades that we talked about and described at the last ASTRO show, which was about 11 or so months ago, I think, or maybe 10 or so months ago. We launched several new upgrades. They were high-output linear accelerator just producing radiation at a faster rate. We had a new variable type collimation system which equaled the IRIS collimator which can actually change the size of the radiation field during the treatment, and also software optimization for planning and optimization for treatment delivery, so the overall package is a combination of hardware and software, and it is those things together, getting one site that had all of these installed together that really only happened during the last quarter. To be honest, we were somewhat surprised ourselves at the combined impact when we looked at those first couple of treatments, and of course, it’s relatively a small number of data points right now. We’re still in the early phases of evaluating what the impact would be across the board, but we were quite frankly amazed that when you combined all of these new upgrades together, we were getting such short treatment times.
Thijs Spoor – JPMorgan
Then just the followup on margins then as it relates to if the new upgraded systems will impact margin also if you have international sales growth through distributors. Do you expect a margin decrease as more sales go through those distributors?
Robert McNamara
To answer your second question first, we wouldn’t expect a margin decrease as more sales through distributors specifically, although clearly if that takes on a larger percentage of total sales versus direct, then that would impact the gross margin because the gross margin on direct sales is better than the sale through distributors, and then regarding the upgrades, I won’t speak specifically to that, but what I can say is I can speak to next year’s gross margin that we believe will be similar to what it is now in the low 50s.
Euan Thomson
Some of the technology aspects, we were provider a linear accelerator before, whereas now we’re providing a higher output linear accelerator. We were providing a collimation system; now, we’re providing a variable collimation system, and obviously software, one software version versus another software version has fairly low impact on margin, so I don’t think we’re expecting any significant changes in margin as a result of this upgrade profile.
Operator
Our next question comes from Eric Schneider with UBS.
Eric Schneider – UBS
First, thanks for providing a little information on the backlog, particularly the historical split between contingent and non-contingent, which brings my question. On the non-contingent piece, it had been growing sort of the mid-teens rate year over year. The growth in your fourth quarter was stunning compared to that, so do you think that is typical sales, fourth quarter phenomenon, where things are being pulled forward from the first quarter of next fiscal year, so do you expect a drop in that, or is that reflecting some other change dynamic in the market that nobody else is seeing?
Robert McNamara
I think as we’ve seen historically our fourth quarter is typically our largest quarter in terms of quarters for all the reasons that every sales organization has. As you enter the last quarter where the annual objectives are trying to be met, fourth quarter comes into play more than the other quarters, so to that extent, I think that’s one reason why the actual dollars went up for non-contingent, but the other piece is, focusing again as we talked about a little bit on the call, the quality of the orders that are coming in and the quality of the orders moving more away from the entrepreneurial customer and more to the hospital based customer has clearly affected favorably the non-contingent mix, as well as the international order flow has also favorably affected the non-contingent mix in Q4.
Eric Schneider – UBS
A portion of that non-contingent is the deferred revenue from the legacy contracts. It looks like looking at the balance sheet movements that about $50 million of next year’s expected revenue comes from legacy contracts through. Is that about right?
Robert McNamara
We currently have within the backlog about $60 million of CyberKnife deferred revenue.
Operator
Our next question comes from Junaid Husain with Soleil.
Junaid Husain – Soleil
Relative to the Stark laws, it seems as if the folks at Congress are moving forward with the tightening of the rules relative to the under-arrangements. It would seem at least on first blush that Stark is not outright prohibiting the under-arrangements, but almost evaluating them on a case-by-case basis. Euan, could you very quickly walk us through this very complicated piece of legislation and then talk about what these new rules could potentially mean to your business?
Euan Thomson
I think we’ve actually touched on that several times over the past year. There’s no doubt it is one of the things we faced very much during the first half of the year. So the changes that are taking place, one relates to under-arrangements which is a freestanding center delivering a treatment on behalf of a hospital and then billing the hospital and the hospital itself then billing for Medicare reimbursement, and CMS continues to tighten up on that. There’s a little bit more information that came out in the inpatient prospective payment schedule, and it does appear that they really are pushing hard on tidying what they consider to be a loophole, but in terms of how that affects our business, I believe we’ve already taken the impact of that over the first part of the year. I think as we see the situation gaining greater clarity, in essence, it’s really helping us because people are then able to structure their business models knowing that rather than sign a contract in the hope that something will happen and everything will work out, and they’ll still be able to persist with the original plan that they had, so I think we’re sorting out through our good customers early on which enables our sales force to either focus on them or not focus on them, and all in all, it just gives much, much greater clarity, so we’re fairly positive at this point, and I think looking at the backlog again, seeing the influx of non-contingent backlog, what that tells you is that we really don’t have a bunch of new contracts that are so heavily weighted towards people sorting out their financing, sorting out their arrangements with hospitals, their joint venture structures, so we’re getting a much cleaner group of contracts all around. That’s really the biggest impact area for us. In terms of Stark and such and ownership, there really hasn’t been an awful lot of change in that. I think it’s always been the case that referring physicians are not really supposed to own the system and benefit from it financially, so that’s an area that doesn’t really change very much, and I think all of our customers always know that that’s the environment that we’re working in.
Junaid Husain – Soleil
And then could you tell us what portion of your backlog, I guess the contingent backlog, is reflective of these entrepreneurial centers?
Robert McNamara
Sure. Certainly less than half of that contingent is reflective of what we call entrepreneurial.
Junaid Husain – Soleil
So more than half of it is the hospital-based operational.
Operator
Our next question comes from Peter Bye with Jefferies & Company.
Peter Bye – Jefferies & Company
Just a couple of questions, and obviously there are questions about orders and units shipped and quality of backlog over the last several quarters. How long does it take once a hospital starts construction to finish the site, and then how many people who placed orders are under construction today?
Robert McNamara
Let me give you a little bit of view about the time to install and such. We actually think it has expanded over the last year or so, and let me kind of talk about this, and we track this based on the units that have been installed, etc., so if you looked at it, say, in ’06, it was closer to 11 months; in ’07, that extended to about 12 months; and now, it’s actually closer to 18 months, and so while an average can be very dangerous here because every customer is different and it’s bimodal, it’s not trimodal, but we look at the range of right now of being between, in terms of time to install, 15 to 24 months.
Peter Bye – Jefferies & Company
Okay, but do you know sites are under construction today?
Robert McNamara
We actually don’t disclose that much detail on a public basis.
Operator
Our next question comes from Amit Hazan with Oppenheimer.
Amit Hazan – Oppenheimer
I’ll ask both of my questions at once and then take my answers offline just in case we encounter technical difficulties. The first one would be just a very straight forward question, looking historically over the last three years now, you pretty much installed about the same number of units every year, roughly around 30; 32 in ’07, 31 in ’08 net. You’re expecting a huge jump in ’09 to get to your guidance of installations. I recognize you said maybe you think you might be over the hump with some of the economic issues, but in your strongest fiscal quarter, your June quarter, you just put up 6 installations. I’m wondering what gives you the confidence that you can increase your installations beyond what we’ve seen in the last three years. That’s my first question, and my second question is on the new orders, we’re getting to an ASP scores of about $4.1 million for those new orders, so the first question is, why has the ASP gone down so much, and also in addition to that, isn’t that going to negatively impact gross margins as that goes through the P&L?
Robert McNamara
I’ll answer your second question first. Our ASP is between $3.5 and $4.0 million. It really depends on again whether it’s a direct or whether it is through a distributor, and then your question regarding the growth or acceleration or increase in installations that we’re looking for next year, part of this year, just as we were coming into the fourth quarter, we did run into some issues that we didn’t quite see, and so, had we been able to handle those properly or we’d been able to make those installs, you would’ve seen an increase, first and foremost, and secondly and we touched on this on the call, we really are going after accelerating those installs. We have this non-contingent backlog, and those contracts are good contracts, and we want to make sure we are able to increase the number of installs next year. How do we do that? Well, we focus on it, so we know who those customers. We know where they are in terms of construction, whether it’s pre-construction, during construction, etc. A lot of the issue has to do with the actual build out and whether it’s part of a single CyberKnife unit or part of a larger facility buildup. That is a real challenge for us, but what we want to be able to do is expand our relationships. We have relationships with the clinicians at the hospital. We have relationships with the administrators in the hospital. Where we want to expand this relationship is to the facilities in the hospitals, so that we can in fact accelerate those installations, and that is clearly one of our goals for next year.
Operator
We take a followup question comes from Eric Schneider of UBS.
Eric Schneider – UBS
You were talking about the time to install lengthening, and investing and accelerating that. How much is that investment costing? These are additional people that are out in the field trying to push this process through?
Robert McNamara
I would say yes, but it’s marginal. We have the infrastructure. It’s a matter of reassigning some existing resources. We might bring in some additional resources. While it will be a focus program, it’s not going to be large enough that you’ll really see it negatively affect the financials. In fact, if it’s successful, you’ll see it favorably affecting the financials.
Eric Schneider – UBS
On the clinical side, is there any concern that the traditional radiation treatment market, particularly for prostate, is at risk with the recommendation to actually not screen in older patients though?
Euan Thomson
No, I don’t think we’re expecting any significant impact in the market from that.
Operator
We’ll take a followup from Peter Bye with Jefferies and Company.
Peter Bye – Jefferies & Company
Just to follow up on Eric’s question, you talked about expanding international sales effort too, and given new orders are out-clipping the US orders here, where do you think that sales force should go or will go next year? I think we have you around in the mid 20s right now. I don’t know if that’s right or not, but maybe you can expound on that a little bit.
Robert McNamara
I’m not sure I understand your question. Are you talking about the…
Peter Bye – Jefferies & Company
Head count.
Euan Thomson
Most of our international sales are managed through distributors. Where we focus on those is distributor management, and really if you look at the sales profile, we really have doubled the size of the sales force during ’07 and ’08, and much of that was an investment in international management, so I think we’ve got most of the infrastructure inside where we now need to manage a pretty large distribution network, and we’re really focused on is identifying the correct distributors for us, and that can be somewhat of a challenge. It’s pretty unique technology, capital equipment for a very specific oncology treatment, so we take some time to find those distributors, and it tends to be an ongoing process of interview and review, and that’s really where we’re focusing our efforts. It’s just reaching out into the rest of countries that we’re not covering right now.
Operator
And that does conclude our question-and-answer session.
Euan Thomson
Alright. Q4 fiscal 2008 was a solid quarter for new contracts. As a result of good sales momentum and very encouraging clinical data, we believe we’re well positioned to increase our leadership position in the expanding radiosurgery market. We continue to build evidence that the CyberKnife is changing the cancer treatment paradigm and in many cases to replace surgery and /or radiation therapy. During fiscal 2008, we weathered the majority of the effects of a rapid change in US market conditions, while still producing revenue growth of 50%. Thank you for your time today. We look forward to talking to you on our next call.
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Unfortunately TRUE... management once again took full advantage of the ridiculous compensation package that shareholders were bamboozled into voting approval for in the past!
I feel it is safe to say, since "the management compensation package" barely got approved last year at the shareholders' meeting, that it has a SNOWBALL-IN-HELL's chance of continuing after this year's meeting.
THE REAL QUESTION is how many institutional shareholders are going to have had enough and be ready to DEMAND that BOTH THOMSON and McNAMARA BE TERMINATED?!!!
Thomson has no lock on understanding the technology & certainly HAS NOT taken the argument in favor of CK to the marketplace and analysts! I am of the opinion that ANY technically savvy "aggressive CEO" found from a job search in the med-tech industry would be able to take over the reins at ARAY and do a BETTER JOB than THOMSON has done!
I just do not personally have the votes to send him packing, or I would have done so before now! The CyberKnife is an awesome device... the culpability of the Board of Directors for the PPS disaster goes without saying! To propose such a devastating incentive package for management is short-sighted and stupid! It is HIGH TIME to END this nonsense at this year's annual meeting!
It is time for shareholders to VOTE to see that management gets "stock option incentives" that encourages them to work for ALL SHAREHOLDERS to add value to the company so that their OPTIONS have FUTURE VALUE from a rising PPS... rather than feeding at the ARAY trough quarter after quarter as the share price declines.
Pigs still at the trough
Non-cash, stock based compensation charges for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 were $4.1 million, or $0.07 per diluted share. For the full fiscal year 2008, non-cash stock-based compensation charges were $16.9 million, or $0.28 per diluted share.
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