Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 11 June 2019 – IBA (Ion Beam Applications SA), the world's leading provider of proton therapy solutions, is pleased to announce the first Flash irradiation in an IBA Proteus®ONE compact gantry treatment room at the Rutherford Cancer Centre Thames Valley in Reading, United Kingdom, on June 8, 2019. This represents another major milestone for IBA and its medical and research partners in their work to lead the development of Flash irradiation.

Flash therapy has the potential to dramatically change the landscape of radiotherapy and patient cancer care, making it more effective, cheaper and therefore more accessible. Flash irradiation is a fast and powerful treatment that delivers a high dose of radiation at an ultra-high dose rate. This novel technique could potentially shorten treatment from 6-8 weeks to 1-2 weeks and has the potential to reduce side effects for patients.

IBA has always led research in proton therapy and has filed its first patent related to Flash in 2010. This early development work enables IBA today to deliver Flash irradiations on both its current single and multi-room proton therapy platforms in clinical environment. In March, IBA successfully performed a Flash irriadiation in its Proteus®PLUS clinical treatment room at the University Medical Center of Groningen. With this latest milestone , IBA demonstrates that its full range of Proteus® equipment is Flash-capable.

As the world's leader in protontherapy, IBA will share the latest developments on Motion Management, Arc Therapy and Flash during its symposium at the PTCOG Congress in Manchester on Friday June 14.

Olivier Legrain, Chief Executive Officer, IBA: "We are delighted about the results obtained at the Rutherford Cancer Center in Reading, demonstrating IBA's technology leadership in Flash therapy research, now for both our multiroom and compact proton therapy solutions. Building on our unique and open culture of collaborative innovation, IBA continues its commitment to further develop Flash therapy. To achieve this we will continue to partner with the most experienced user community to study the radiobiology of proton Flash irradiation and help our clinical partners by accelerating access to the latest innovations in proton therapy."

Prof. Karol Sikora, Chief Medical Officer at Proton Partners International: "We are pleased to be working closely at developing futuristic therapies with IBA - the world's leading proton equipment manufacturer. We are delighted that our patients will be amongst the first to gain from the convenience of short course radiotherapy and look forward to pioneering the latest developments in this exciting area."


About Flash Therapy
Flash radiotherapy is a novel external non-invasive radiotherapy technique that consists of delivering a high dose of radiation at an ultra-high dose rate. When compared to radiotherapy delivered at conventional dose rates (1 – 7 cGy/sec), the Flash phenomenon seems to appear when irradiation is delivered with a dose superior to 8 Gy and at a dose rate above 33 Gy/sec in a very short time (less than a second). In other words, healthy tissue seems to withstand this novel method of irradiation better, while the tumor has the same level of sensitivity to Flash irradiation as to conventional treatment.


About IBA
IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) is a global medical technology company focused on bringing integrated and innovative solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The company is the worldwide technology leader in the field of proton therapy, considered to be the most advanced form of radiation therapy available today. IBA's proton therapy solutions are flexible and adaptable, allowing customers to choose from universal full-scale proton therapy centers as well as compact, single room solutions. In addition, IBA has a radiation dosimetry business and develops particle accelerators for the medical world and industry. Headquartered in Belgium and employing about 1,400 people worldwide, IBA has the largest number of installed proton therapy systems across the world.


About the Rutherford Cancer Centres
The Rutherford Cancer Centres are at the forefront of providing advanced cancer care and creating a better future for cancer patients. The centres provide an all-encompassing cancer service, delivering world-class imaging, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy and proton beam therapy treatment.