Elekta has announced its Flexitron brachytherapy afterloading platform was approved by the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) to enter Chinese markets.
There are increasingly high numbers of people suffering from gynecologic, lung, breast and colorectal cancers in China who could benefit from brachytherapy, a type of internal radiation therapy that can deliver radiation to a specific region within the body through insertion of a small temporary catheter, decreasing treatment periods and presenting fewer side effects than external beam radiation.
Flexitron becoming available in the Chinese markets translates into a significantly higher number of patients that will benefit from this innovative and advanced afterloading platform.
“We believe Flexitron afterloading is revolutionizing safety and workflow in the modern brachytherapy practice, and since it is designed around an upgradable architecture, Flexitron represents a truly safe investment for the future”, Maurits Wolleswinkel, VP Business Line Management, for Elekta’s brachytherapy business area, stated in a company’s earlier press release.
The Flexitron afterloading platform has managed to improve brachytherapy treatment delivery process, based on an analysis of a radiation professional’s workflow, allowing the reduction of its complexity while increasing its efficiency. Furthermore, it can significantly increase safety in a modern approach to brachytherapy, making it a state-of-the-art efficient platform from investment and training perspectives.
“Elekta is happy to introduce to China an effective brachytherapy solution – especially for gynecologic cancers. The timing is perfect as recently published guidelines from the 2014 CSTRO/SANTRO Symposium in October state that brachytherapy is a key technique for cervical cancer treatment and is instrumental in improving the control and survival rates of women with these cancers”, Anming Gong, Elekta’s Managing Director for China, said in a press release.
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Every year in China there are approximately 130,000 new cases of cervical cancer and almost 40,000 patients undergo annual brachytherapy treatments.
Elekta is a pioneer in clinical innovation solutions for treating different types of cancer, developing innovative solutions for radiation therapy, radiosurgery and brachytherapy. In particular, the company has developed specifically designed small applicators to adequately fit Asian patient’s anatomy.
