Compact therapy

Thanks to a technology transfer agreement between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and TomoTherapy of Madison, Wisconsin, the first compact proton therapy system is one step closer to reality.

Proton therapy is considered the most advanced form of radiation therapy available, but size and cost have to date limited the technology’s use to only six cancer centres in the US.

The result of defence-related research, the compact system was developed by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in a project jointly funded by the Laboratory and UC Davis Cancer Center.

TomoTherapy will fund development of the first clinical prototype, which will be tested on patients at UC Davis Cancer Center. If clinical testing is successful, TomoTherapy will bring the machines to market.

Conventional radiation therapy kills cancer cells using high-energy X-rays. But unlike high-energy X-rays, proton beams deposit almost all of their energy on their target, with a low amount of radiation deposited in tissues from the surface of the skin to the front of tumour, and almost no “exit dose” beyond the tumour. This property enables doctors to hit tumours with higher, potentially more effective radiation doses than is possible with gamma radiation.