SightLine Health Participates in Study to Relieve Cancer Patients’ Bone Pain

Houston Prostate Cancer Patients to be Treated with Focused Ultrasound.

HOUSTON, Oct. 10, 2008—Two of SightLine Health’s Houston clinics will work together in a pivotal clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) to relieve bone pain in cancer patients.

Qualifying patients whose prostate cancer is treated at SightLine Medical Center (which provides intensity-modulated radiation therapy) will undergo MRgFUS at SightLine Houston. That clinic typically treats women with uterine fibroids, a condition for which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved focused ultrasound treatment in 2004.

The trial is testing the effectiveness of MRgFUS to relieve the pain of bone metastases in cancer patients who have failed initial rounds of palliative radiation. It is sponsored by InSightec, which manufactures the ExAblateÒ focused ultrasound equipment used by SightLine. The ExAblate 2000 system earned European CE Mark certification in June for palliative treatment of bone metastases. Most patients treated there reported pain relief within days.

“Almost all prostate cancer patients whose disease has spread have skeletal tumors, which commonly cause bone pain,” explained Dr. Sanjay Mehta, radiation oncologist at SightLine Medical Center. “Many patients are too weak to withstand surgery to relieve pain, so noninvasive MRgFUS may prove to be an attractive option for improving quality of life for late-stage patients.”

MRgFUS uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualize tumors while focused ultrasound waves heat and destroy targeted cells. This noninvasive procedure is performed under conscious sedation and takes only a few hours. Patients may return to normal activities within a day or two.

SightLine is among 15 facilities nationwide participating in the bone pain trial. Dr. Mehta will serve as SightLine’s principal investigator with SightLine Medical Center medical director Dr. Brian Miles as coinvestigator.

For more information about SightLine or about study eligibility, call 713-630-8181.

About SightLine Health
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, one of the country’s leading medical communities, SightLine Health brings patients access to emerging technology. It is one of the few U.S. companies offering uterine fibroid treatment with ExAblate technology, the only FDA-approved MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) equipment. SightLine is affiliated with dedicated radiologists and gynecologists with decades of knowledge in women’s health and MRI technology—a combination not found in other MRgFUS
facilities. For more information on the procedure and on SightLine, visit www.sightlinehealth.com.

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