May 27, 2009 – Palo Alto, Calif. – Minutes after receiving a single, powerful non-invasive radiosurgery treatment, John Sisco, 64, happily walked out of the treatment room without any need for an overnight stay in the hospital, and left for home. Doctors at Somerset Medical Center, in Somerville, New Jersey, used the advanced Novalis Tx™ platform from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) and BrainLAB to deliver the accurate, image-guided treatment designed to eradicate an abnormal tangle of blood vessels, called an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), that had grown near Sisco’s brainstem.
Over a year earlier, Sisco’s doctors had surgically removed about 60% of the AVM, but due to its proximity to the brain stem and other delicate blood vessels, chose to treat the remaining 40% using radiosurgery, which does not require any actual cutting, but attacks the lesion using high-energy X-ray beams. Using the Novalis Tx platform’s image-guidance and robotically-controlled beam shaping tools, clinicians directed a precisely sculpted beam at the AVM, in a treatment designed to avoid surrounding sensitive brain structures.
Sisco’s doctors gave him an entire year to recover after the initial surgery. “During that year, I was almost always light headed and exhausted. When I asked if I could go back to work, my doctors told me to forget about it,” said Sisco, who had built machines that make plastic bottles. “My experience with radiosurgery has been considerably better. After the treatment was over, I met my wife in the waiting room, and we went home.”
“Performing normal surgery a second time in this case was too high of a risk,” said Jim Chimenti, MD, a neurosurgeon at Somerset Medical Center. “Novalis Tx gave us the careful precision we needed, as we were able to spread the dose over the deep seated lesion while avoiding as much of the delicate brain tissue, near the AVM, as possible.”
“It’s easy to consider the Novalis Tx machine as a surgical tool,” added Dr. Chimenti. “Its image guidance capabilities are very similar to what we use in the operating room, and the beam-shaping device treats the lesion as a 3D object, similar to how a surgeon would approach it. We were able to achieve superb coverage of an irregularly shaped lesion.”
Joel Braver, MD, medical director of radiation oncology at Somerset Medical Center’s Steeplechase Cancer Center, said it will take around two years for Sisco’s AVM to completely dissolve following the radiosurgery procedure. “Compared to traditional surgery, there is no cutting or damage to the skull, or need for lengthy recovery associated with surgery,” said Dr. Braver. “John should be able to resume his normal activities, while the lesion slowly disappears, without a period of hospital convalescence. With Novalis Tx, he received an exceptional, highly accurate treatment and he’s doing extremely well.”
