Healthcare Industry News: proton beam therapy
News Release - July 23, 2007
IBA Unveils Its Universal Nozzle for Proton Therapy During AAPM
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium--(HSMN NewsFeed)--IBA announced today that its business unit, IBA Particle Therapy, is displaying its full size Universal Nozzle alpha release at the annual congress of The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), held in Minneapolis, Minnesota from July 22 to July 26, 2007.The IBA Universal Nozzle, with its unique design, will allow treatment planners and clinicians to expand capabilities in choosing the optimal treatment beam delivery mode for each patient. "With this leading edge technology, IBA has demonstrated their true understanding of the clinical and operational realities faced by a Proton Therapy department in daily practice," said Zuofeng Li, D.Sc., Associate Professor and head of medical physics at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute. The IBA Universal Nozzle is designed to deliver the beam in four delivery modes: Single Scattering, Double Scattering, Uniform Scanning, as well as Pencil Beam Scanning(a). Today, IBA is the only company offering such an all-in-one integrated system.
With the IBA Universal Nozzle, a Proton Therapy department will have the flexibility to select the preferred beam delivery mode easily and automatically, without any manual intervention. Such flexibility in treatment modes represents an ideal solution for facilities that want to maximize their capabilities, with an increasing patient throughput. A Proton Therapy department will also be able to make that choice of treatment mode with the confidence that the mode selected will be safe, effective and easy to use for the staff on a routine basis, as well as comfortable for patients.
"The universal nozzle, which is a major piece of equipment and a key advantage for IBA, will provide us the ability to select between either scattering or scanning beams. It will give us huge clinical freedom to really tailor the treatment to each patient," said Dr. Zelig Tochner, Director, Proton Therapy Project, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, University of Pennsylvania.
"We don't believe we can rely solely on scanning. We want a flexible system. The IBA Universal Nozzle was quite an attractive proposition for us in that respect. It does offer you flexibility. So that was one issue that came into play in our final selection of IBA as our vendor," said Richard L. Maughan, Ph.D., Professor, Director & Clinical Chief of Medical Physics, Division of Medical Physics, University of Pennsylvania.
"We are extremely excited about the opportunity to show a real Universal Nozzle to all our visitors during the AAPM congress," said Jean-Marc Andral, President IBA Particle Therapy. "We will be able to show our technological leadership in the field of Proton Therapy and explain our progress to date in Pencil Beam Scanning. It is because IBA works closely with our Proton Therapy customers that we understand the real challenges they face in balancing clinical and operational considerations," added Mr. Andral.
ABOUT IBA
IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.: Reuters IOBAt.BR and Bloomberg IBAB.BB) delivers solutions of exceptional precision in the fields of cancer diagnosis and therapy. The company also provides sterilization and ionization solutions to improve the hygiene and safety of everyday life. IBA is the undisputed world market leader in Particle Therapy, with more than 50% market share. Twelve institutions in the US, Asia and Europe have already chosen a Proton Therapy system from IBA.
IBA is listed on the pan-European stock exchange EURONEXT, is integrated into the NextEconomy market segment, and belongs to the BelMid index. Website: http://www.iba-worldwide.com.
At AAPM, visit IBA in Booth #519, Hall B.
(a) Pencil Beam Scanning is under development and is subject to review by the competent authorities (FDA, European Notified Bodies, etc.) before being available to the market.
Source: Ion Beam Applications
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