ViewRay Inc, the U.S. maker of the MRIdian System, announces a partnership with award-winning journalist and cancer advocate Katie Couric’s multi-media company, Katie Couric Media (KCM). ViewRay and KCM are working together to launch a national awareness campaign to educate patients and clinicians about MRIdian SMART (Stereotactic MRI-guided adaptive radiotherapy) for treatment of pancreatic, prostate, lung, liver, breast, colorectal and oligometastatic cancers.
Nearly 25,000 patients have been treated by over 50 MRIdian systems, including 21 academic and community hospitals in the United States and nearly 30 other hospitals around the world. These centers are pioneering the use of MRIdian SMART treatments and have demonstrated favorable patient outcomes, including extended survival for pancreatic cancer patients and reduced side effects through shorter course treatments for prostate cancer patients.
Couric’s life mission is focused on cancer prevention and research. After her first husband, Jay Monahan, died from colorectal cancer more than two decades ago, Couric bravely got a colonoscopy live on NBC’s Today show, which she cohosted from 1991 to 2006, to raise awareness of colon cancer screenings. The same year, she co-founded the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, and then in 2008, Couric co-founded Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C). Since its launch, SU2C has raised more than $700 million to support cutting-edge collaborative science and its research has contributed to nine new FDA-approved therapies.
“I’m thrilled to announce our new partnership with ViewRay. Their one-of-a-kind technology is enabling clinicians to treat patients with targeted, and effective state-of-the-art MRI-guided radiation therapy. Innovation like this gives me hope for the millions of people around the world currently battling cancer,” says Katie Couric.
In 2017, Couric and her husband, John Molner, started Katie Couric Media, a multi-media company that creates high-quality content in collaboration with purpose-driven brands that sparks curiosity, elevates conversation, inspires action and moves the world forward. “With over 5 million subscribers across multiple platforms, our audience at KCM is looking to support companies and brands that are innovative, best in class and striving to make a difference. ViewRay’s vision to conquer cancer by re-envisioning radiation therapy is a perfect example of this,” says John Molner, Katie Couric Media’s Co-Founder and CEO.
“Thousands of patients treated on MRIdian prove compelling and consistent clinical outcomes in both tough to treat and more common cancers. Patients demand short-course non-invasive therapy with fewer side effects and better quality of life, whether they face complex or more common forms of cancer. ViewRay is committed to delivering that to every patient who requires treatment,” said Scott Drake President and CEO of ViewRay. “Our expanding body of clinical data combined with our footprint of MRIdian systems make this the perfect time to partner with Katie and her team. This campaign is an expression and expansion of our dedication to empower cancer patients and their loved ones to find the hope that resides in the best available care.”
The MRIdian system provides oncologists outstanding anatomical visualization through diagnostic-quality MR images and the ability to adapt a radiation therapy plan to the targeted cancer with the patient on the table. This combination allows physicians to define tight treatment margins to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure of vulnerable organs-at-risk and healthy tissue and allows the delivery of ablative radiation doses in five or fewer treatment sessions, without relying on implanted markers. By providing real-time continuous tracking of the target and organs-at-risk, MRIdian enables automatic gating of the radiation beam if the target moves outside the user-defined margins. This allows for delivery of the prescribed dose to the target, while sparing surrounding healthy tissue and critical structures, which results in minimizing toxicities typically associated with conventional radiation therapy.
[Source(s): ViewRay Inc, PR Newswire]
