A Sound Investment

For cancer centers looking to replace outdated technology or offer patients advanced technology, the RefleXion X1 is a sound investment.

New technology holds great promise for advancing cancer patients’ treatment, but investments in new technology are usually expensive. Healthcare systems and cancer centers must choose carefully where to spend their capital dollars, especially in a tight fiscal environment. Decision-makers need to weigh the benefits of the new technology against the costs and consider a purchase’s competitive advantages, how it fits with and expands their existing offerings and its impact on patient flow and staffing.

Fighting all stages of cancer

A growing body of published research and clinical studies supports the use of combination therapy (e.g., radiation with immunotherapy, targeted therapy or chemotherapy) to treat late-stage cancer patients. Emerging clinical research demonstrates combination therapy can improve overall survival and progression-free survival in some cancers.

“Our technology is designed to treat all stages of cancer,” says Len Lyons, RefleXion’s vice president of sales. “Right now, existing machines primarily treat early-stage disease using conventional technology; however, the unique benefit of the X1 is that it is designed to one day treat late-stage cancer patients as well.”

The RefleXion X1 is suitable for a facility looking to replace any existing linac. Lyons commented that “The incremental benefit of treating late-stage or metastatic cancer would be unprecedented, especially as there is currently extensive research investigating the potential benefits of treating multiple tumors while reducing the overall radiation dose and still producing a better outcome for the patient.

“And, the RefleXion X1 fits into almost any existing vault, so it will require minimal if any, additional shielding or construction.”

A promising not-so-distant future

“Every other machine uses some form of anatomic image guidance, but when used in biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT)* mode, the X1 is using a biologic process produced in real-time from each tumor defined in the treatment plan,” says Judy Bartlett Roberto, RefleXion’s vice president of marketing.

RefleXion’s X1 should allow for more conformal treatment to decrease the amount of healthy tissue that receives radiation and enable more tumors to be treated.

“BgRT’s eventual ability to reveal the cancer’s location, movement, and response to treatment through the use of PET is a significant market differentiator,” she says. “Oftentimes, cancer centers worry about losing patients to other cancer centers in the area. We believe BgRT brings the promise of treating a new patient population, one that no cancer center is treating today. In addition, the ability to also treat early-stage cancer patients—the ones all cancer centers treat––means that the same machine addressing currently eligible patients will expand to eventually form the backbone of a new concept: a metastatic radiotherapy practice.”

*The RefleXion X1 is cleared for SBRT, SRS and IMRT. BgRT requires additional regulatory review; this feature is not currently available for sale.