Siemens Next Generation Technology May Bring New Hope to Cancer Patients

  CONCORD, Calif., June 17 — The ARTISTE(TM) Solution from
Siemens Healthcare (http://www.siemens.com/healthcare) has recently gone clinical
in three of the most prominent cancer centers around the world. Dozens of
patients have been treated to date at MAASTRO Clinic in the Netherlands,
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, and Baton
Rouge General’s Pennington Cancer Center in Louisiana.

       The ARTISTE Solution is a linear accelerator engineered specifically
for Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART). Unique in design, ARTISTE is an
integrated imaging and workflow solution that offers a comprehensive
portfolio of image-guided and advanced treatment delivery protocols,
including in-room CT imaging capabilities and a new multileaf collimator,
160 MLC(TM).

    One of the first patients treated with ARTISTE was seen at DKFZ, where
the linear accelerator was used to administer radiotherapy for an
inoperable esophagus tumor. “Treatment for this type of tumor demands a
very complicated radiotherapy approach,” said Prof. Dr. Huber, head of the
Radiation Oncology Clinical Cooperation Unit at DKFZ. “Using ARTISTE’s 160
MLC Multileaf Collimator, we were able to significantly improve the
precision of the dose delivery, while protecting immediate surrounding
healthy tissue.”

    That same week, several patients at MAASTRO Clinic were also treated
using ARTISTE. A couple of challenging clinical cases included a
metastasized tumor in the abdominal region and a patient with two separate
metastases: one in the head and neck region, and one in the knee cap.

    “The advanced, high-end imaging capabilities of ARTISTE allow us to
fully integrate all our Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) and
MAASTRO-developed Dose-Guided Radiation Therapy (DGRT) methods in one
clinical workflow. ARTISTE’s imaging flexibility and simplified workflow
help us to confidently treat proliferated tumors in a wide range of areas
of the body,” said Bas Nijsten, medical radiotherapy physicist in the
Maastricht Radiation Oncology Department.

    More recently, the first U.S. patients were treated with ARTISTE
Solution at the Baton Rouge General’s Pennington Cancer Center. The first
two patients were treated for lung and prostate tumors, respectively, where
ARTISTE’s 2D and 3D imaging allowed confirmation of tumor location and
enabled more focused and aggressive treatment, while helping spare organs
at risk.

    “With ARTISTE, Siemens is changing the way radiotherapy is delivered.
As the first site in the U.S. with ARTISTE, our mission at Baton Rouge
General’s Pennington

    Cancer Center is to combine our commitment to compassionate cancer care
with the latest, most advanced treatment technology,” said Dr. William
Russell, medical director of Radiation Oncology at Pennington Cancer
Center.

    “This exciting milestone has come to fruition thanks to the clinical
collaboration between Siemens, MAASTRO, DKFZ, and Baton Rouge General,”
said Holger Schmidt, chief executive officer, Oncology Care Systems,
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. “ARTISTE’s unique integration of
technologies and streamlined workflow allows clinicians to truly customize
patient treatment by providing them the flexibility and means to
confidently optimize treatment on a per-patient basis. It is an honor for
us at Siemens to be part of this collaborative effort to help improve
quality of care for cancer patients around the world. We are delighted to
have 55 new ARTISTE orders since its introduction in the market last
January.”

    The goal of Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART) is to ensure the
therapeutic dose is delivered precisely to the target, and healthy tissue
is spared as planned. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to image the
patient just prior to treatment, verify that the patient position is
correct, and adapt to any anatomical changes immediately before, or even
during, treatment.

    About Siemens Healthcare

    Siemens Healthcare is one of the world’s largest suppliers to the
healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider
with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic
technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information
technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics
acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare is the first fully integrated diagnostics
company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics, therapy, and
healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by consulting and
support services. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions across the entire
continuum of care – from prevention and early detection, to diagnosis,
therapy and care. Additionally, Siemens is the global market leader in
innovative hearing instruments. The company employs more than 49,000 people
worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2007 (Sept.
30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of euro 9.85 billion, orders of euro
10.27 billion, and group profit of euro 1.32 billion. Further information
can be found by visiting http://www.siemens.com/healthcare.

    About Baton Rouge General’s Pennington Cancer Center

    Baton Rouge General’s Pennington Cancer Center has a rich history of
bringing advanced cancer treatment solutions to South Louisiana through its
comprehensive, multidisciplinary cancer program which includes inpatient,
outpatient, surgical and medical oncology services; radiation treatment;
and cancer research programs. In 2006, the Pennington family endowed Baton
Rouge General’s cancer center, further expanding and increasing access to
high quality cancer treatment for the people of this region. For further
information, visit http://www.brgeneral.org.

    About DKFZ

    The task of the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg (German
Cancer Research Center, DKFZ) is to systematically investigate the
mechanisms of cancer development and to identify cancer risk factors. The
findings resulting from basic research are expected to lead to new
approaches in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. Funding
is provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; 90
percent) and by the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg (10 percent). The German
Cancer Research Center is a member of the Helmholtz Association of National
Research Centers (Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren e.V.)
Further information can be found at http://www.dkfz.de.

    About MAASTRO CLINIC

    MAASTRO, Maastricht Radiation Oncology, is a co-operation between
MAASTRO clinic, the University of Maastricht (UM) and the University
Hospital Maastricht (azM). MAASTRO clinic offers state-of-the-art
radiotherapy to more than 3,500 cancer patients each year from the mid- and
South Limburg area in the Netherlands. MAASTRO clinic currently has seven
modern linear accelerators, all equipped with EPID and one with Megavolt
Cone Beam CT, a PET-CT and a small and large bore multislice CT with 4D-CT
option. For all patients, planning is done via virtual simulation and 3D
planning software, using advanced dose calculation algorithms. Stereotactic
and brachytherapy treatment are also offered by MAASTRO clinic. The
department’s ambitions focus on individualizing treatment using Computer
Assisted Theragnostics (CAT), developing predictive models for lung cancer,
implementing Dose Guided Radiation Therapy (DGRT) and fundamental
biological research on tumor hypoxia. Long-term strategies are defined in
the areas of ion therapy, smart drugs based on EGFR-AKT pathway, and stem
cells and probabilistic voxel-guided radiotherapy. Furthermore, MAASTRO is
a world-wide research partner based reference site for Siemens OCS. For
further information, visit http://www.maastro.nl/.

SOURCE Siemens Healthcare