RaySearch Starts a New Collaboration with CNAO Foundation
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RaySearch Laboratories AB has received an order for its RayStation® treatment planning system from CNAO Foundation (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica) in Pavia, Italy.
CNAO is a clinical facility created and financed by the Italian Ministry of Health that will supply ion beam therapy to patients from all of Italy.
The proton and carbon ion beams are generated by an accelerator complex built by CNAO in collaboration with other European institutions including INFN, CERN and GSI. CNAO started treating patients with proton beams in September 2011.
The first patient treatment with carbon ions took place in November 2012. From 2014 the facility will start running at full capacity with the operational goal to treat about 2000 patients annually.
CNAO is the second combined proton and carbon ion center to select the RayStation® treatment planning system following MedAustron in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The ion beam therapy delivered at these centers represents the most advanced form of external radiotherapy where the tumor is irradiated with protons or carbon ions.
Compared to conventional photon radiotherapy the energy deposition of the ion beams can be controlled much more effectively. The radiation dose can be delivered more precisely and as a result, the unwanted dose to healthy tissues is reduced, leading to a reduction of treatment-related side effects. In addition, radiation therapy with carbon ions can be used to target tumors with low levels of oxygen, so called hypoxic tumors, for which conventional radiation therapy has limited effect.
The order comprises all of RayStation’s current functionality as well as the new carbon ion planning functionality. The carbon ion planning module, which builds on the current pencil beam scanning functionality for protons, will serve both normal clinical use and research needs.
The module optimizes the scanning pattern for discrete and line scanned beams with physical dose calculated either by a pencil beam algorithm or a Monte Carlo algorithm. The system will use RaySearch’s well-proven optimization platform to optimize directly the biologically effective dose.
Johan Löf, CEO of RaySearch Laboratories AB says: “This order from one of the leading radiation therapy centers in the world is important to us for several reasons. Not only is it the second RayStation® order in the field of carbon ions, it also provides unique and essential validation and research opportunities to support the development of RayStation’s carbon ion planning module. We really look forward to collaborating with the CNAO team in this field.”
