Improving cancer patient outcomes: Introducing the XEOS AURA 10 to surgical oncology

26th September 2024

At a glance

> Care Wise is pleased to announce we are working with XEOS to bring PET-CT imaging directly into surgery for improved assessment of surgical specimens and the potential reduction for re-excision.

> XEOS manufactures the AURA 10, a mobile unit that provides high-resolution molecular imaging that allows surgeons of multiple specialties to better assess excised specimens in real-time.

> In our latest video, we hear from Consultant Urologist Donald McDonald and Head of Cancer Services John Elliott at Coventry University Hospital about its recent introduction there.

Bringing high-resolution molecular imaging directly to the Operating Room

The XEOS AURA 10 is a mobile unit that brings high-resolution molecular imaging directly to the operating room for the first time. Designed to allow surgeons to assess excised specimens in real-time using PET-CT imaging during surgery to improve patient outcomes and reduce the potential for additional surgery.

The XEOS AURA 10 is already being used successfully in hospitals in Germany and Belgium and has just been introduced to Coventry University Hospital in the UK. One of the surgeons who will be using it is Consultant Urologist Donald MacDonald. In a recent interview with us, Mr. MacDonald laid out what he hopes the XEOS AURA 10 will bring to his patients.

Taking the guesswork out of tissue removal

As Mr. MacDonald identifies, the critical issue with prostate cancer is removing all the cancerous tissue without removing non-cancerous tissue, saying, “There’s about 25% of patients in whom we don’t take enough tissue away, and about 25% of patients in whom we take too much tissue away. And at the moment, we don’t have any tools that are usable in everyday practise that can help guide how radical our dissection should be.

“So, we are hoping that the XEOS will allow us to perform the very minimum amount of surgery, examine the specimen whilst we’re in theatre, whilst the patient is asleep, see if what we’ve done has been sufficient to cure the cancer. And if it has, that’s brilliant, we can leave all of the adjacent structures intact. Whereas if the XEOS tells us that there is still likely to be residual disease then we can go on and extend the limit of our dissection.”

University Hospital Coventry’s Nuclear Medicine Team take delivery of the XEOS AURA 10.

“… the surgeon is able to have greater confidence …”

Head of Cancer Services John Elliott said, “We recognize that there’s a real ability to improve the surgical margins for tumors being removed, so essentially during procedure, the surgeon is able to have greater confidence with regards to the tumor being removed and the surgical margins, meaning that patients are less likely to require salvage radiotherapy that requires additional and unnecessary stress for the patient and also unnecessary, additional care when it can be achieved through one procedure.”

“… we are genuinely very, very excited about what this can offer.”

Mr. Donaldson said, “It’s genuinely very, very exciting. The most radical prostatectomy surgeons would agree that there are certain centers around the world that offer a gold-standard service. The XEOS, if it performs as promised, would allow me to deliver that level of service which is massively empowering for me, so we are genuinely very, very excited about what this can offer.”

Find out more

You can learn more about the XEOS AURA 10 by watching our latest video by clicking the button below to speak to a product specialist directly.

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