Mobetron Radiation Technology Brings Higher Survival Rates to Advanced Cancer Patients in Phoenix and the Southwest

Thursday, May 30, 2002

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 30, 2002 - Patients undergoing surgery at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix for locally advanced colorectal, gynecologic and renal cancers, can now receive one of the world's most advanced, effective and rare forms of cancer-fighting radiation therapy.

One of the world's only seven FDA-approved mobile Intraoperative Electron Radiation (IOERT) machines, called the Mobetron, is now in use at Mayo Clinic Hospital, the only medical center in the Southwest with this new treatment option. The Mobetron can be brought directly to the patient's operating room at Mayo Clinic Hospital at the time of surgery.

Cancer patients treated with the new device can receive a powerful, concentrated beam of electron radiation delivered directly to cancerous tumors while the tumors are exposed during surgery. Traditional external radiation therapy poses the risk of irradiating and causing serious damage to healthy tissues in cases where the cancerous tumors are located deep within body cavities that are surrounded by healthy tissue.

A single dose of the intraoperative electron radiation is equivalent to two to five weeks of daily external radiation therapy (10 to 25 daily radiation treatments).

IOERT is used in conjunction with a course of external radiation given prior to surgery, and surgical removal of as much of the tumor as possible. During the IOERT procedure, the surgeon can move healthy organs out of the radiation field to prevent damage, which enables a stronger dose of electron radiation to be directed to the cancerous tumor.

"Currently, we are using this new technology at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center - Scottsdale to treat certain disease sites, including gastrointestinal (colorectal, pancreatic, esophagus, stomach, biliary), gynecologic, renal, and head/neck cancers and sarcomas (soft tissue cancers), " says Leonard L. Gunderson, M.D., head of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale and Deputy Director for Clinical Affairs, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center - Scottsdale. "As we progress with IOERT, we will begin to apply this new technology to additional disease sites, including breast and lung cancer."

Recent studies from Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minn.), show that patients with locally advanced primary colorectal cancer who received IOERT as a component of their treatment had a 46 percent five-year survival rate compared to 24 percent in a control group without IOERT. The study also found that patients with locally recurrent colorectal cancer who received IOERT had a 19 percent five-year survival rate compared to only 7 percent who did not receive the treatment.

Dr. Gunderson, who joined Mayo Clinic Scottsdale in 2001 as Deputy Director of its Cancer Center, pioneered the development of intraoperative electron irradiation treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minn.). More than 1,500 patients have been treated with IOERT there since 1981, making Mayo Clinic the largest IOERT program in the world. Since 1989, the IOERT was administered with a non-moveable electron radiation machine located in an operating room. The new device at Mayo Clinic (Scottsdale) Hospital adds mobility to the IOERT machine, enabling it to be rolled directly to the patient's operating room.

"For the first time in the Southwest, IOERT enables our team of specialists to maximize the dose of radiation given to the tumor while minimizing the amount of radiation damage to surrounding normal tissue. Now, we can focus concentrated beams of radiation on cancerous tumors while they are exposed during surgery," says Dr. Gunderson

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Mayo Clinic is a private group practice of medicine dedicated to providing diagnosis and treatment of patient illnesses through a systematic focus on individual patient needs. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 66 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the Clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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