Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, September 16, 2019 - IBA (Ion Beam Applications SA), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions for the treatment of cancer, held its third Victoria Consortium Meeting focusing on FLASH(1) irradiation at ASTRO.

In addition, during IBA’s annual symposium on Proton Therapy that took place on Sunday, September 15, Dr Amit Maity, Executive Vice-Chair Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, also shared the latest insight on Proton FLASH Radiation Therapy for Gastrointestinal (GI) Malignancies.

Building on the largest network of clinical partners in proton therapy, IBA has been leading innovation for over 30 years. Today, IBA is uniquely positioned to drive the development of FLASH irradiation, the next major innovation expected in radiation therapy. FLASH therapy has the potential to dramatically change the landscape of radiotherapy and patient cancer care, making it more effective and more accessible than conventional radiotherapy. 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 time from 6-8 weeks to less than a week and has the potential to reduce side effects for patients.

IBA is collaborating with several leading proton therapy centers in their pioneering research work to better understand the mechanisms of FLASH irradiation. This early development work enables IBA today to deliver FLASH irradiation on both its current single and multi-room proton therapy platforms in a clinical environment in research mode as demonstrated in March 2019 at the University Medical Center of Groningen, The Netherlands, and in June 2019 at the Rutherford Cancer Center Thames Valley in Reading, England.

Dr Alexander Lin, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Chief of the Head and Neck Oncology Service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, commented: “FLASH is a very exciting opportunity and we believe that proton therapy can be a very suitable modality to achieve the desired outcomes. We are at a stage where more research is needed to better understand the mechanisms of FLASH irradiation, and we are very excited about our current research program at Penn Medicine. Coordinating our efforts with other centers is key, and IBA’s Victoria meeting offered a great forum to share our insights.”

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