by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | October 10, 2022
From the October 2022 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Mevion
Since July 2021, Mevion has continued to advance its FLASH development program for the MEVION S250i Proton Therapy System through both research and technological innovations.
FLASH delivers radiation therapy with protons at ultrahigh dose rates. Last year, the company conducted a series of mouse studies in an effort to develop and validate a “merged-field” technique that delivers FLASH radiation by combining small fields into a large, common irradiation volume.
In April 2022, Mevion introduced its FLASH Research Kit that enables Mevion users to quickly and safely switch their HYPERSCAN clinical system into FLASH-research mode.
“While this internal research and development effort has proved extraordinarily valuable in understanding the specific technical and clinical requirements needed to deliver FLASH treatments, Mevion believes that supplying Mevion users and researchers with the ability to perform their own FLASH research experiments will even further accelerate the growth of this exciting irradiation technique,” said Rocky Owen, clinical R&D engineer and relationship manager at Mevion. “All of us at Mevion believe that FLASH technology can provide the most advanced and cost-effective platform for proton FLASH irradiations.”
In the second half of 2021, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City started treatment with the MEVION S250i Proton Therapy System. The center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the area, and serves both adult and pediatric patients in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming.
Mercy Hospital in St. Louis started proton therapy treatment with the MEVION S250i system in July of this year.
In addition, Mevion was selected to equip centers in the U.S. and around the world, including the Kansas City Proton Institute and Tongji Hospital in China. Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis upgraded its first system and expanded its partnership with Mevion on FLASH therapy research.
P-Cure
In May 6, P-Cure opened a clinical research and training site within its headquarters in Israel, located 20 minutes from both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The site includes a fully operational proton therapy system, which is composed of a compact linear accelerator, a 360-degree, gantryless treatment room and access to treatment and delivery planning.
The site is designed to deliver and develop proton therapy protocols for patients and to train existing and new customers.
