Profile: TomoTherapy Incorporated (TOMO.O)

TomoTherapy Incorporated develops, manufactures, markets and sells the Hi-Art system, a radiation therapy system for the treatment of a range of cancer types. The Company manufactures each Hi Art system in a 64,000 square foot facility in Madison, Wisconsin. The Hi Art system combines integrated computerized tomography (CT) imaging with radiation therapy to deliver radiation treatment while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.It markets and sell the Hi Art system to hospitals and cancer treatment centers in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and offer customer support services in each region. TomoTherapy also has collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories with regard to acceleration technology. North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific accounted for 67%, 24% and 9%, respectively, of the Company's revenue during the year ended December 31, 2008. On October 31, 2008, the Company acquired Chengdu Twin Peak Accelerator Technology Inc. (Twin Peak), a privately held company based in Chengdu, China.

The Hi Art system contains a linear accelerator, which is a device that generates external beam radiation that is used both to capture images and to deliver therapeutic radiation to selected targets in a helical, or spiral, delivery pattern 360 degrees around the body. The linear accelerator rotates on a circular frame, or ring gantry, that is housed in a protective cover. The Hi Art system’s helical delivery pattern and imaging capabilities, combined with the system’s treatment planning software and ability to shape the beam delivering radiation, allow clinicians to locate and define the size, shape and density of tumors, maximize radiation delivered to diseased tissue, minimize radiation delivered to healthy tissue and measure the radiation dose actually received by the patient.

The Hi Art system’s combination of technologies allow clinicians to make modifications to a patient’s cancer treatment plan as changes in the location, size, shape and density of tumors or in the patient’s internal anatomy are detected over the course of treatment. To deliver radiation therapy, the Hi Art system first determines a patient’s treatment plan by calculating the radiation dose pattern that maximizes the radiation dose to the tumor and minimizes exposure of healthy tissue. A quantitative CT image of the treatment area is taken to identify the location, size, shape and density of the tumor and is used to properly position the patient relative to the treatment beam. The radiation dose is delivered using a device called a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) that consists of a series of tungsten leaves that open and close to modulate the shape of radiation beams produced by the linear accelerator as the patient passes horizontally through the ring gantry. The data acquired for the positioning of the patient can also be used to compute the dose received by the patient. Data regarding the dose distribution is used by the clinician to evaluate and, if necessary, adjust the treatment plan in subsequent treatment sessions to address changes in patient anatomy, such as tumor shrinkage or displacement due to weight loss, as well as any previous errors accumulated in treatment delivery and planning.

The Company offers site planning services to all of its customers. Each installation is assigned a project manager and installation team with local design experts. The team assists customers in retrofitting existing bunkers or in the construction of new bunkers. It also offers training for physicists, dosimetrists and therapists. Courses include technical, physics and application training. The Company has a service operations team, which includes logistics, field service, call centers, back office operations, installation and site planning, and, as of December 31, 2008, it maintained 21 regional spare parts depots to facilitate response to requests for parts or service. It also offers a range of Tomo Lifecycle Care (TLC), post-warranty equipment service agreements that permit customers to contract for the level of equipment maintenance they require for one or more years. It also offers the Partnership TLC Service Package (Partnership TLC), pursuant to, which it provides customers with technical training, remote support, spare parts coverage and semi-annual maintenance and the Support TLC Service Package (Support TLC), pursuant to, which it provides customers with technical training, remote support.

The Company competes with Varian Medical Systems, Inc., Siemens AG, Elekta AB, Accuray Incorporated and BrainLAB AG.