Elekta : Neurosurgery pioneer, Prof. L. Dade Lunsford, receives Swedish award for radiosurgery excellence

Brain surgery with no cutting or incisions remains in great demand

Elekta (EKTA-B.ST) announced today that Professor L. Dade Lunsford, MD, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has won the prestigious Herbert Olivecrona Award for his outstanding contribution to brain surgery with Leksell Gamma Knife. The award is presented by Karolinska Institutet & Karolinska University Hospital in honor of Professor Herbert Olivecrona (1891-1980) an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and Professor of Neurosurgery at Karolinska Institutet until 1960.

Prof. Lunsford was responsible for bringing Leksell Gamma Knife to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 1987, the first center in the United States to offer this state-of-the-art form of brain surgery.

'Gamma Knife was once a disruptive technology,' he says. 'With experience from 15,000 patients treated in Pittsburgh over the last 30 years, we can confirm that Gamma Knife surgery has become a sustaining technology because of its proven medical value, improved patient outcomes and quality of life, plus reduced costs to patients and health care insurers.'

Gamma Knife surgery, also sometimes referred to as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), is a non-invasive alternative to traditional brain surgery and radiation therapy for treatment of complex, difficult to treat brain conditions. Since its first use in the late 1960s, more than one million patients worldwide have received treatment with Leksell Gamma Knife.

In addition to being the Lars Leksell Professor and Distinguished Professor at the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, Lunsford, is also director of the Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and an internationally recognized authority on stereotactic surgery, radiosurgery, and minimally invasive surgery.

As recipient of the award, also known as the 'Nobel Prize of Neurosurgery', Prof. Lunsford will deliver his Olivecrona Lecture, 'Can the future of neurosurgery innovation be sustained?' The ceremony is held at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm on December 1, 2017.

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