April 23, 2012 — Patients at St. James’s University Hospital in Leeds, United Kingdom, were the first to benefit from the use of Agility, the latest multileaf collimator (MLC) from Elekta. With twice the number of leaves typical of many standard MLCs, Agility precisely sculpts delivered radiation to the unique contours of the tumor while reducing the risk of exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
"This truly represents a radical improvement in the way we deliver radiotherapy, combining both speed and precision in tailoring the radiation beams to the exact shape of the patient's tumor," said Vivian Cosgrove, Ph.D., head of radiotherapy physics at St. James's. "Agility enables a faster delivery of advanced radiotherapy treatments. Reduced treatment times will lead to a better experience for the patient and will improve access to the technology for the benefit of more of our patients."
The product of an extensive R&D effort by Elekta to transform cancer care, the leaves of Agility are also capable of traveling at twice the speed of other MLCs commonly used in radiotherapy. This unique capability supports an added capacity for precision beam shaping as well as shorter treatment times, increasing both patient comfort and the clinic's delivery efficiency. Relying on a new design, Agility also has demonstrated extraordinarily low leaf transmission to reduce the patient's non-therapeutic radiation exposure. Agility recently received CE Mark approval.
"Agility's versatility combined with the potential patient benefits have generated much enthusiasm and market demand," says Olof Sanden, executive vice president, Europe and AFLAME, Elekta. "We look forward to many more cancer patients benefiting from this breakthrough technology."
For more information: www.elekta.com/agility
August 09, 2024 
