For a subset of cancers, the exciting world of ion beam, proton beam and FLASH radiotherapy have presented new opportunities to deliver high doses of ionizing radiation to tumors, with the potential to increasingly spare normal tissue. As these therapies move into more routine clinical practice, it is critical to optimize and validate current treatment protocols.
SARRP Beamline, the newest product from Xstrahl’s Life Sciences division, enables image-guided experiments with particle beamlines. This technology is a fundamental advancement in the way that preclinical, translational radiation research can be conducted using particle beamlines.
Leading cancer researchers at both the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania are already using SARRP Beamline to support advanced radiation research.
Using SARRP Beamline, researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania published recent data in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics, showing that it’s possible for patients to receive their entire course of radiation in less than a second, using protons rather than electrons to generate FLASH doses.
“This is the first time anyone has published findings that demonstrate the feasibility of using protons – rather than electrons – to generate FLASH doses, with an accelerator currently used for clinical treatments,” said the study’s senior co-author James M. Metz, MD, director of the Roberts Proton Therapy Center and chair of Radiation Oncology.
Xstrahl built this innovative solution on the existing SARRP platform, recognized as the first choice of radiation biology researchers worldwide due to its ability to mimic clinical radiation therapy using a combination of high-resolution CT imaging, dynamic couch and gantry movements, and intuitive treatment planning software.
The new SARRP Beamline takes the technology of SARRP one step further, advancing preclinical experiments in particle therapy because it enables researchers to perform experiments using their clinical set-up, directly on their preclinical model. Using SARRP Beamline, researchers can align the proton beam to the SARRP isocenter within 0.24mm. The system can also be configured on rails for easy adaptability to the particle beamline.
“We developed SARRP Beamline to help researchers better understand and exploit the biological responses seen in particle therapy,” said Adrian Treverton, chief executive officer at Xstrahl. “This evidence shows the success of SARRP Beamline as the ultimate adaptable research platform for in vivo proton studies.”
For more information on the Xstrahl or SARRP Beamline, visit www.xstrahl.com.[:]
