As the CEO and president of oncology company Accuray, Euan Thomson has dedicated his life to battling cancer with groundbreaking radiation techniques.

Can you tell us about the cancer-fighting techniques employed at Accuray? At Accuray, we have two groundbreaking technologies for radiation treatment of cancer. One of them is CyberKnife and one is the TomoTherapy system. The CyberKnife delivers intense doses of radiation as an alternative to surgery. The TomoTherapy system treats patients generally after surgery with a complete course of radiation that really limits the dose and potential damage to the surrounding tissue.

What is your mission as CEO? Our personal mission is to really make a difference in the field of cancer treatment. I’ve lost a number of relatives to cancer fairly early in my life and I’ve only ever worked in the field of cancer treatment.

What is a recent accomplishment? We’ve passed an important milestone. We now estimate that well over 200,000 patients [have been] treated with CyberKnife and TomoTherapy. That, of course, motivates everybody here.