Hitachi got an order from the Mayo Clinic for two of its Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) systems. The giant setup, which the company claims is “40 percent smaller than that of the conventional system,” involves installing a particle accelerator and four patient treatment rooms, plus one for research. The advantage of PBT is that hydrogen nuclei can be aimed precisely to hit the tumor so that almost all the energy is delivered to the target, sparing healthy tissue in the beam’s path.
From the announcement:
At each facility, there will be four treatment rooms with the rotating gantry systems and one fixed beam room initially used for research and development. Construction for both facilities is scheduled to commence later this year, and proton therapy patient treatment is expected to be offered in the summer of 2015 and spring 2016, respectively.
Spot scanning technology became feasible by advancing the uniform quality beam extraction technology from the accelerator and beam control technology with high accuracy, which includes three primary benefits: (1) more accurate irradiation which can reduce the side effects to the healthy tissues surrounding the tumor compared with conventional double scattering irradiation; (2) patient-specific collimators and boluses are not necessary; and (3) proton beam usage factor is high, reducing unnecessary secondary radiation.
Press release: Hitachi Accepts an Order for Two New Proton Beam Therapy Systems in the U.S…
Product page: Proton Beam Therapy…