RaySearch Laboratories AB announce that a letter of intent has been signed with Scanditronix-Wellhöfer to enter into a long-term development and license agreement regarding new products for quality assurance of IMRT. RaySearch is a world leader in treatment planning for IMRT and in advanced software applications for radiation therapy of cancer. Scanditronix-Wellhöfer is a world leader in advanced dosimetry and quality assurance solutions for clinical and industrial radiation applications.
Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is an advanced method for radiation therapy of cancer. IMRT allows higher radiation doses to be delivered to the tumor than what is possible with a conventional treatment, and at the same time reduces the risks for side effects in surrounding healthy tissue. Since IMRT treatments are complex in nature, thorough quality assurance is required to minimize deviations between the planned radiation dose distribution and the dose that is actually delivered to the patient. In the quality assurance procedure, the treatment beams’ true intensity distributions are measured against the intensity distributions calculated in the treatment planning system to determine if deviations are within the defined tolerance levels. Currently, this is a highly time- and resource-consuming task for the radiation therapy clinics. Within the framework of this cooperation, RaySearch will develop advanced software that supports and improves the efficiency of quality assurance of IMRT. Scanditronix-Wellhöfer will further develop its dosimetry platform to facilitate in a more refined manner the determination of the beam’s physical properties and to achieve more rapid and accurate measurements. By combining RaySearch’s dose calculation algorithms and visualization framework with Scanditronix-Wellhöfer’s dosimetry competence and innovative detector technology and software, an effective and user-friendly tool is created for automated quality assurance of advanced radiation therapy. “The number of cancer treatments based on IMRT is rapidly increasing. It is our continuous strive to provide our global customer base with first-class dosimetry solutions that enable the clinics to cope with increasing patient throughput demand, yet at highest treatment accuracy and reliability standards. The specific competence in dose calculation and optimization algorithms makes RaySearch Laboratories AB an optimal partner for bringing new, leading edge technologies in the field of IMRT quality assurance to the market.” says Rob Plompen, President and CEO of Scanditronix-Wellhöfer. “It is very satisfying that we have signed a letter of intent with Scanditronix-Wellhöfer, which is the leader in the market for dosimetry solutions,” says Johan Löf, President and CEO of RaySearch Laboratories AB. “Together, we will be able to create effective and highly competitive systems for automated quality assurance of IMRT. Currently, there is a great need in the clinics for new solutions in this area, since quality assurance demands substantial personnel resources. This is due primarily to the lack of effective tools and standardized processes. Scanditronix-Wellhöfer is in the absolute forefront of detector technology and has an installed base within a market segment to which we previously did not have access. Therefore, they are a very suitable partner to us and a future agreement will mean a natural and exciting expansion of RaySearch’s product portfolio.”