Comunicados de prensa

American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) join forces to launch stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) patient registry

Comprehensive data bank will inform national treatment benchmarks for SRS

San Francisco, 14 de septiembre de 2014

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) are partnering to launch and support a national registry for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatments. The SRS patient registry will define national patterns of care in radiosurgery, with an eye to improving health care outcomes, supporting informed decision making and potentially lowering the cost-of-care for patients. The registry project will gather data from 30 diverse, high-volume sites with data specific to stereotactic radiosurgery during the next three years. The registry will log de-identified SRS treatment information of thousands of patients affected by brain metastases, benign brain tumors and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).

“AANS and ASTRO have begun a national prospective radiosurgical registry. The registry underscores the commitment by AANS and ASTRO to enhancing quality care for our patients. It also provides new opportunities for achieving major advances in the management of patients with complex problems such as brain tumors, vascular malformations and functional disorders, which is why the Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF) is also providing support,” commented Jason Sheehan, MD, PhD, FAANS, Harrison Distinguished Professor and vice-chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of Virginia.

ASTRO Health Policy Council Chair and a radiation oncologist at the University of Colorado, Denver, Brian Kavanagh, MD, MPH, added, “ASTRO is excited to partner with AANS for this important project. Radiosurgery is one of the most important, high-value services we can provide to a wide-range of patients for an assortment of benign and malignant cancers. The registry will give us ’big data’ that we can use to refine our current technical and patient selection guidelines with the nuanced observations that can only be derived from large patient cohorts who are followed prospectively in a registry platform.”
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a minimally invasive approach utilizing imaging guidance and stereotactic principles to deliver radiation to targeted cells within the body, and it has become an important part of the neurosurgical resources for the treatment of brain metastases, benign brain tumors and arteriovenous malformations.

ASTRO and AANS will lead the Scientific Advisory Committee charged with providing strategic oversight for the registry, including but not limited to identifying and approving contributing sites that will participate; developing the plan for data collection; managing the data collection issues; developing plans for data analysis and managing data analysis issues; review and analysis of statistical reports; development of policies and procedures for responding to requests for access to registry data; and for review and approval of the publication or public presentation of data, results or conclusions resulting from the project.

Analysis of the de-identified patient data will be scientifically published, and the fully de-identified data elements will subsequently be made available in the public domain. This transparency is important to the registry and will likely stimulate secondary publications beyond what is published by the Scientific Advisory Committee.

Major sponsorship for the project has been provided by Brainlab. Additional sponsors are being sought to support the long-term efforts and expansion of the registry.

Brainlab

Brainlab creates software-driven med tech digitizing, automating and optimizing clinical workflows. Serving physicians, medical professionals and patients in 6700 hospitals in 127 countries, we’re transforming healthcare to improve the lives of patients everywhere. We employ over 2400 people in 25 locations worldwide. Visit and follow: Brainlab, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About ASTRO

ASTRO is the premier radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals that specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through professional education and training, support for clinical practice and health policy standards, advancement of science and research, and advocacy. ASTRO publishes two medical journals, International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (www.redjournal.org) and Practical Radiation Oncology (www.practicalradonc.org); developed and maintains an extensive patient website, www.rtanswers.org; and created the Radiation Oncology Institute (www.roinstitute.org), a non-profit foundation to support research and education efforts around the world that enhance and confirm the critical role of radiation therapy in improving cancer treatment. To learn more about ASTRO, visit www.astro.org.