Accuray Announces New Treatment Planning Service Offering
New Service Helps Customers to Treat More Patients
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a global leader in the field of radiosurgery, announced today that the company will begin offering a treatment planning service to new and existing CyberKnife(R) customers. This new service will allow these centers to access a dedicated team of remote scientists specializing in CyberKnife radiosurgery treatment planning, thereby giving each center the flexibility and capacity to treat more patients without altering their staffing.
"Accuray's treatment planning service will help our customers control costs and increase their patient throughput, while also helping Accuray to enhance its recurring revenue," said Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., president and CEO of Accuray Incorporated. "Our data indicate that our users will treat more than 20,000 patients during the 2008 calendar year. At current reimbursement levels, that translates into a potential market opportunity of more than $50 million. As more CyberKnife Systems are installed and treatment numbers increase, the market will continue to expand."
Georgetown's CyberKnife Center, one of the top five busiest CyberKnife Centers in the world, has already signed on for Accuray's new treatment planning service. Treatment planning services are approved for reimbursement through Medicare and other private carriers.
"We're looking forward to utilizing Accuray's treatment planning service to enhance our operational effectiveness and address the global shortage of medical physicists paired with the growing demand for CyberKnife radiosurgery," said Linda F. Winger, vice president of professional services and research administration at Georgetown University Hospital. "The treatment planning service will allow our physicists to focus on our long term growth and quality of care by transferring the time-consuming daily task of treatment planning to an external team of experts."
Accuray's treatment planning service will also enable new customers to begin delivering CyberKnife treatments earlier by allowing their in-house staff to focus on the important role of site commissioning and quality assurance while transferring the planning component to Accuray's treatment planning group's Board Certified medical physicists.
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 40,000 patients worldwide and currently more than 100 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, clinical studies, regulatory review and approval, and market acceptance and commercialization of products and services 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-Q for the quarterly period ended September 29, 2007 and may be updated from time to time by 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
01/24/2008
CONTACT: Susan Lehman of Rockpoint Public Relations, +1-510-832-6006,
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stomei@accuray.com
Web site: http://www.accuray.com