Sep 9, 2008
MIT, ProTom team up on proton therapy

Researchers at MIT's Bates Linear Accelerator Center (Middleton, MA) are collaborating with ProTom International (Fort Worth, TX) to develop an advanced proton-therapy system for cancer treatment. ProTom holds the exclusive US rights for a next-generation synchrotron technology originating at the Lebedev Physics Institute in Russia.

The collaboration will utilize the expertise and resources at Bates - part of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - to test, calibrate and document the new synchrotron technology. The researchers aim to utilize these developments at ProTom cancer-treatment centres beginning in 2010.

"We at Bates are excited to participate in a collaboration to improve proton-beam therapy with the objective of more effective cancer treatment worldwide," said Robert Redwine, director of Bates and a professor of physics at MIT, who will lead this project.

ProTom's proton-therapy system incorporates true pencil-beam scanning, enabling 3D intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT). The company says that this set-up eliminates the need for customized collimators and compensators and improves patient throughput.

The synchrotron's external-ring diameter of less than 16 feet (4.9 m) and total weight of approximately 15 tons should reduce capital and operating costs. Meanwhile, the synchrotron offers a variable beam energy of 30-330 MeV (±0.15%), with acceleration up to 330 MeV achieved in one second.

ProTom is a turnkey developer that will operate proton-therapy centres in partnership with community-based healthcare providers. "Proton therapy should become available to appropriate cancer patients close to where they live," said Stephen Spotts, the company's CEO.

"The enormous cost of building these centres in the past has prevented local hospitals from considering this technology," he explained. "The breakthrough developments we have accomplished and the improvements we will co-develop with MIT will lead the way to make community-based proton therapy a reality."