Amethyst UK, first to use new frame to transform patient experience at its London treatment centre Queen Square Radiotherapy Centre.
Read the full article from htworld.co.uk here.
We’re delighted to announce that Amethyst Physicist, Ian Paddick, recently received the esteemed Fabrikant Award in Milan at the ISRS Congress 2022. The Award is given every two years to an individual or individuals who are members of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS), and have made longstanding and significant contributions to the field of radiosurgery.
On receiving the Award, Ian Paddick said, “I’m truly humbled to receive this award. It’s the first time a physicist has received the prize on their own and I’m also the first recipient from the UK. The award is usually given to radiation oncologists or neurosurgeons, but this year’s award demonstrates that physicists are valued by clinicians and make a significant contribution to shaping clinical practice”.
He went on to add, “I’ve published over 50 articles on stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and have been lucky to have my work on indices incorporated into all the major treatment planning systems. I’ve also been fortunate to visit and teach at over 100 Gamma Knife centres around the world, so my work really has a global reach. My current and future research is in radiobiology where I believe we can make significant improvements in the efficacy and consistency of treatments.”
Importantly, the winner of the Fabrikant Award is invited to give a ‘Fabrikant lecture’, which is then published as a paper in the ISRS Journal – the Journal of Radiosurgery and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy . The winner also receives a grant of $5,000 and a commemorative certificate. During his lecture, Ian discussed ways to improve clinical research, encouraged attendees to question dogma which holds back the discipline of SRS, and highlighted aspects of work published such as the Paddick Conformity Index, Gradient Index and Efficiency Index and the importance of being able to standardise treatments so that centres can compare their data.
Ian was the first physicist to serve as president of the ISRS (2017-2019), and today he serves as an Ex-officio member of the board where he chairs the Certification Service. This Service provides the only in-person quality audit for SRS centres that is offered by a device agnostic organisation. This is an exciting initiative, which Ian hopes will raise the standard of SRS around the world. Two centres have been audited so far with the first, Koç University in Istanbul, receiving their certificate of quality in radiosurgery at the meeting in Milan.
June 28, 2022
To some people with brain tumours, the idea of undergoing a gamma knife procedure may sound very novel and scary. But in fact the procedure is so well established that people have had having their lives transformed for many years.
Speaking to the Richmond-Times Dispatch in the US, Tina Holloway, a patient who had been diagnosed with a stage 4 metastatic melanoma in 2015 – by which point the cancer had also spread to her breasts, abdomen, legs and pelvis as well as her brain – explained her story.
The prognosis looked terminal, with doctors giving her six months to live, but Gamma Knife surgery saved her life. After three hours of surgery, she was sent home and within 30 days she was declared in remission. “It’s scary when you’re told you have six months to live,” Ms Holloman said, “and here I am in 2022.”
Private radiotherapy centres in the UK like ours have been using Gamma Knife surgery for years. The fact that the procedure has been used so often, for so long and with so much success should be seen as highly encouraging to anyone needing treatment.
There should be no surprise that this extraordinary technology should be seeing more and more use. Indeed, the latest research has revealed that the technique continues to grow in use all over the world and will go on doing so.
A market research study by Future Market Insights titled ‘Gamma Knife Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025’ has predicted that there will be ongoing rapid growth in the use of the technology.
It predicted the market will see compound annual growth of 5.90 per cent between 2021 and 2031, taking its global value from US$287.3 million to US$507 million, with North America being the leading regional market, the Asia-Pacific region second and Europe third.
The UK will be a part of Europe’s growth, although the prediction is for Germany to be the leading user of Gamma Knife surgery in Europe with a 20 per cent share of procedures.
Dealing with brain metastasis will be the most common use of the technique, although others will include conditions such as arteriovenous malformation and trigeminal neuralgia.
Behind these numbers lie thousands of real-life stories of patents for whom it seemed all hope was lost and who, without Gamma Knife surgery, the rest of their lives would have been very short. Not only is the hugely treatment effective, but it is painless, people can go straight home afterwards without a long convalescence, and there is none of the physical scarring involved in invasive surgery.
For so many the reality is now very different as they live cancer free lives way beyond their diagnoses and often with many more years ahead of them.
June 3, 2022
The Derby, taking place on June 4th, will be taking centre stage for a reason other than horse racing this year, with a special auction going on to raise money for charity Brain Tumour Research.
As part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations and in tribute to Queen Elizabeth, some of the biggest milliners in the UK have come up with designs for a one-off collection of hats inspired by the Queen’s 70-year reign, with the hats going under the hammer online on June 12th.
The Hats Fit For a Queen collection features pieces designed by Royal milliners Rachel Trevor-Morgan and Stephen Jones. The hats will be on display in the Queen’s Stand at Epsom Downs on both the Friday and Saturday.
Charity supporter Lisa Connell, who was diagnosed with an inoperable meningioma at the age of 26 and had Gamma Knife surgery to treat the tumour, has been pictured modelling the hats on behalf of Brain Tumour Research.
She also recently set up a fundraising group called Officially Lisa Connell to help find a cure for brain tumours and improve outcomes for patients.
Anne McEntee has also modelled some of the hats for the charity. Her husband Tom passed away two years after he was diagnosed with a glioblastoma. Since then, Anne has gone on to raise nearly £25,000 for charity.
Gamma Knife surgery itself is a well-established way to treat some brain tumours or lesions, although it’s not actually a knife in the traditional sense, since no incisions in the head are made at all.
The procedure is simple and painless, with precise and focused beams of radiation directed to the treatment area, meaning that only the target is hit, leaving the surrounding tissue intact.
To find out more about this type of radiosurgery, get in touch with us today.
May 18, 2022
The world’s best specialised hospitals for 2022 have been ranked by Newsweek, in partnership with global research firm Statista – and the Queen Square Gamma Knife centre has been named as the third best for specialist treatment (neurology) in the world.
The best facilities across six specialities were reviewed in 2021 – cardiology, neurology, oncology, endocrinology, gastroenterology and orthopaedics.
But for 2022, the list was expanded to ten specialities, with the ranking now featuring the top 250 hospitals in oncology and cardiology, the top 150 for cardiac surgery and paediatrics, and the top 125 in neurology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, orthopaedics and pulmonology.
The list itself is based on a global survey of medical professionals, with scores based on primary and secondary recommendations. More than 40,000 medical experts were invited to take the online survey in over 20 countries, asked to recommend and rank hospitals based on expertise in one primary medical field.
The Queen Square Radiosurgery Centre is a leading internationally recognised clinical centre of excellence. It was established in 2021 and went on to join the Amethyst Group in 2020.
It can be found within the University College London Hospitals’ National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen Square in London. It is, in fact, the oldest neurosciences hospital in the world.
Clinical director Neil Kitchen commented on the news, saying: “The Queen Square Gamma Knife centre has been at the cutting edge of neurosurgery treatment for the past ten years.”
Together with the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, the Queen Square site forms a major centre of excellence for teaching, training and research in neuroscience. In all, four of the world’s top 12 most cited authors in neurosciences and behaviour are now based at Queen’s Square.
May 16, 2022
Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a very well-established way to treat certain brain tumours or lesions in the brain – but it’s not a knife in the strictest sense, since no incisions at all are made in the head.
Instead, the simple and painless procedure involves directing incredibly precise and focused beams of radiation to the specified treatment area, which means that only the target is hit and none of the surrounding healthy tissue is damaged.
It is a safe and effective way to treat brain tumours and lesions, helping over 80,000 patients around the world each year.
The radiation source used for Gamma Knife is cobalt-60 and 192 physical pieces of this are loaded into the unit. This means that the radiation beams generated are delivered incredibly accurately and, when they intersect at the desired target point, the combined radiation is strong enough to deliver treatment.
Over the years, the treatment has been successful in shrinking tumours in the brain, effective at treating acoustic neuroma, meningioma, and pituitary adenoma, as well as other non-cancerous conditions and trigeminal neuralgia (sudden and severe facial pain).
There are a range of benefits associated with Gamma Knife treatment, not least the fact that no surgical incisions are necessary in order to access the right part of the brain. The accuracy of the treatment is one of its biggest unique selling points and it also means that there’s less downtime, with a full dose of treatment typically delivered in just one session.
There’s also no need for the head to be shaved because no incision is required, and the risk of associated complications is low. Patients should be able to go home the same day and start following their typical daily routine in just a couple of days’ time.
For more information relating to Gamma Knife surgery in the UK, get in touch with us today.
May 12, 2022
CNS Pharameceuticals has received the go-ahead from regulators in Spain to conduct a trial for a new drug called Berubicin, which is designed to treat recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. The news follows similar regulatory approval in France and Switzerland.
The trials will see some patients given the drug while others receive the existing chemotherapy treatment Lomustine.
Commenting on the development, CNS Pharmaceuticals CEO John Climaco said: “We continue to build momentum in our potentially pivotal study of Berubicin, and importantly advance toward bringing a much needed treatment option to patients.” He added his thanks to the Spanish drug authority AEMPS and ethics committee CElm Provincial de Sevilla for approving the trial.
Should the study prove successful, it could bring nearer the day when the drug might be added to the existing list of treatments available for glioblastoma.
At present, gamma knife radiosurgery remains one of the most effective treatments for brain tumours, particularly due to its non-invasive nature and absence of recovery time.
Indeed, it is worth noting that even if Berubicin does prove to be effective, this form of radiosurgery will still be a very effective and important option.
Moreover, it is important to note that Berubicin will still need to go through not just the trials, but also peer review and then seek regulatory approval before it can be made available in Austria and elsewhere. This process may take some years. Besides all this, it is far from certain at this early stage whether the treatment will prove to make a significant difference.
The quest to find new treatments that might help fight glioblastoma and other tumours has also focused on possible treatments such as Paxalisib.
Kazia Therapeutics, which produces Paxalisib, recently announced it had completed the second phase of trials and will shortly be presenting the results.
Chief executive officer of the company Dr James Garner said: “This study has greatly expanded our understanding of paxalisib, and the insights it has provided have informed all our subsequent work with the drug.”
A key finding of the trial was that it appeared to be very effective in achieving longer survival times among patients whose genetic profile made them resistant to Temozolomide, the only drug currently approved in the US for glioblastoma.
It found that the average survival time for the intent-to-treat population was 15.7 months, compared with 12.7 months for Temozolomide, while median progression-free survival was also higher, at 8.4 months to 5.3 months.
Final data from this stage of the research is expected to emerge next year, which may inform further research ahead of the third stage of trials. Further research is planned in Europe and China.
While this may be good news and Berubicin may provide more, this will not diminish the potential value of gamma knife treatments. Indeed, it may be a combination of the drugs and this form of radiosurgery could turn out to bring the best results in the future.
May 6, 2022
Neurosurgery is a highly precise field used to treat several conditions that are often life-threatening or life-altering, with the aim of using minimal interventions to create huge differences.
The disorder trigeminal neuralgia is the latter, but it can also be a life-halting for over 355,000 people who experienced the disorder with episodes of debilitating facial pain.
Thankfully, trigeminal neuralgia treatment with Gamma Knife surgery, can minimise the painful episodes it causes.
Trigeminal neuralgia was first described by John Fothergill in 1773 as a sudden, sharp facial pain that many patients compare to an electric shock to the gums, teeth or jaw.
Due to the level of pain, the unexpected nature of episodes and the long-lasting physical and mental effects TN can have, it has unfortunately been referred to as the “suicide disease”, after a Harvey Cushing study reported on 123 cases between 1896 and 1912.
The trigeminal nerve, which gives the disorder part of its name, is the nerve responsible for biting and chewing, which is often triggered by eating or light touch.
This unfortunately can lead to the condition being misdiagnosed as a more benign but still painful condition such as temporomandibular disorder (TMD), a dental condition that causes pain in the jaw or ear but often goes away on its own or with the help of a retainer.
On the other hand, trigeminal neuralgia is a nerve disorder that needs to be differentiated from TMD and other conditions caused by chewing and biting, such as a cracked tooth or infection.
Some dentists diagnose it this way by using a local anaesthetic that blocks TN but not other masticatory pain.
Once TN has been discovered, the next step is treatment. Often the first-line treatment will be the anticonvulsant medication carbamazepine, which is also used to treat epilepsy, with other alternative medicines available if this does not work.
However, if the anticonvulsant medicine is ineffective or causes major side effects, there are also surgical treatments that can potentially help if a medication cannot.
These are divided into those that damage the nerve at a precise point to stop it from causing pain and others that relieve pressure and pain.
The main surgical intervention was microvascular decompression, an invasive surgery which involves making an incision behind the ear and placing a pad between the compression area and nerve to stop it from causing pain responses.
Whilst effective, it is also an invasive surgery, requiring general anaesthetic and a long period of recovery.
However, an increasingly popular treatment is stereotactic radiosurgery, also known as Gamma Knife surgery, which can be done without anaesthetic, without any incisions, and as an Outpatient without any hospital stay and minimal recovery time.
Apr 28, 2022
One of the most important developments in the history of cancer treatment was radiosurgery, which was a technique that could destroy malignant tissue with exacting precision and without the need for more open forms of surgery.
When attempting to remove or destroy malignant tissue, lesions or tumours, where this cancerous material is will strongly affect what types of treatment are possible or within acceptable boundaries of safety, and no place in the body is more sensitive and precarious as the brain.
Before the development of radiosurgery, if someone suffered from a small lesion or tumour in the brain, surgery could be seen as too risky to attempt, given the chance of complications, and neurosurgeons looked for an alternative.
The man who managed to make a breakthrough, however, was a Swedish neurosurgery specialist by the name of Lars Leksell.
His technique, which he called stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), was described by Dr Leksell himself as a “single high dose” of radiation, targeted using three-dimensional coordinates to target a certain point within the brain, usually where a small lesion or growth had developed.
Initially, despite being called radiosurgery, the very first stereotactic instrument Dr Leksell attempted to use was a series of electrodes and probes, only replacing them with focused x-ray beams in the early 1950s.
Radiation was an essential part of the process, particularly once multiple narrow beams were focused on a particular point since they could deliver a dose of radiation strong enough to kill targeted tissue whilst protecting healthy brain tissue from unnecessary damage.
Over the next decade, the main evolution of radiosurgery, primarily carried by the work of Börje Larsson and Kurt Linden, was the development of dedicated proton beams to stereotactic radiosurgery, rather than relying on x-rays.
Whilst this was a major step forward from x-rays, there were still issues. Proton beam therapy relies on the use of a synchrocyclotron, a type of particle accelerator that whilst effective, was also too big and too bulky to allow for regular use.
This was when Dr Leksell would help to develop the Gamma Knife at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which was developed to be a relatively compact, simple to use practical tool that a surgeon could themselves use to treat patients.
The initial prototype works in a very similar way to the more advanced Gamma Knife systems used today, with several sources of cobalt-60 radiation being placed in a helmet with slits that were designed to treat a range of pain, behavioural and movement disorders that regular treatments could not.
The second, which used 179 cobalt-60 sources, was used to treat brain tumours, and later units would use 201 cobalt-60 sources, a number that continues to be used to this day as the systems used to focus radiation are more accurate than those used by Dr Leksell.
Beyond cancers, however, the Gamma Knife has become an effective tool for treating diseases that previously required surgical intervention, such as acoustic neurinomas, arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and pituitary adenomas.
Dr Leksell did not unfortunately live too long into the new era of radiosurgery that he had developed, dying peacefully in the Swiss Alps in 1986 at the age of 78.
Apr 20, 2022
The Brain Tumour Charity has joined more than 50 other organisations and signed up to the government’s ten-year cancer plan, which aims at improving care for cancer patients in the UK.
As well as providing evidence to help develop the goals for better cancer care, the Brain Tumour Charity has put its name down on a consensus statement published by One Cancer Voice.
This laid out ten tests the new plan must adhere to for it to be successful in providing better care, support and treatment of cancer patients.
The statement from One Cancer Voice read: “Drawing on our collective experiences from supporting people living with cancer, research, data and insight, we have developed this consensus statement, setting out what actions Government and the NHS need to take to ensure people diagnosed with cancer in England get the very best care and treatment.”
It stated that “people living with cancer must be at the heart of cancer care and support”.
One Cancer Voice wanted to remind the government how important a successful outcome of the ten-year plan is, saying: “[It] must be ambitious in scope to recover from the pandemic and to close the gap between England and the best performing countries in the world.”
According to figures from Cancer Research UK, 858 people are diagnosed with cancer every single day. Despite ongoing research, the number of people who die from cancer every year has increased by eight per cent since 2001.
The ten tests the government’s plan needs to fulfil include having a clear political leadership and being fully funded till the end; England being ‘smoke free’ by 2030; greater awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of cancer to reduce emergency presentation to below five per cent; and early diagnosis rising to 78 per cent of cases.
One Cancer Voice also wants the plan to ensure cancer waiting time targets are met throughout the UK and everyone has access to the treatment they need at the right time; cancer patients have a personalised care plan for their wider wellbeing needs by 2032; patients have access to specialist workforce and equipment they need; giving health service staff more time to dedicate to training and enabling everyone to join clinical trials; and data collection, analysis and publishing is done quickly.
The group of charities also wants the number of cancer cases that could have been prevented if it was not for social inequalities to have decreased within the next decade.
Secretary of state for health and social care Sajid Javid also issued a Call for Evidence earlier this year to encourage groups and people to answer questions on different categories such as treatment, care, support, aftercare, research, data, prevention and faster diagnosis.
In addition to signing up to One Cancer Voice’s consensus statement, the Brain Tumour Charity submitted responses to the Call for Evidence. It specifically highlighted the challenges those with brain tumours have to contend with.
Over 5,300 people die from a brain tumour every year, and reduce the life expectancy by 27 years, which is more than any other cancer.
Shockingly, they are the biggest cause of cancer death in people under the age of 40, including children, and just 12 per cent of adults survive more than five years after being given a diagnosis.
For non-invasive treatment of brain tumours to improve prognosis, consider gamma knife surgery in the UK. To find out more, contact us today.
