An amazing new PET/CT scanner has produced its first images of human subjects, giving scientists and clinicians new opportunities to treat cancer and other diseases. The EXPLORER is a high sensitivity total-body positron emission tomography scanner developed by a collaboration of many different scientists. It is capable of imaging the entire human (Read more...)
Tag: Radiation Oncology
University of Missouri Research Reactor Now Supplying Iodine-131 for Thyroid Treatment
Medical radioisotopes are widely used in cancer treatment, but their production has been hampered to the point that obtaining them has become a challenge. The lack of Technetium-99m is probably the most widely known, but there’s also a shortage of Iodine-131 (I-131), a radioisotope commonly used for diagnosing and treating thyroid condit (Read more...)
Philips Unveils New Radiation Oncology Imaging Systems
Philips is releasing a couple new systems for radiotherapy at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The Big Bore RT is a dedicated CT oncology simulator with built-in technologies such as iterative model reconstruction (IMR) for improved imaging of small details and for quick completion of (Read more...)
FUJIFILM Unveils CT Scanner with Ultra-Wide Bore for Radiology, Radiotherapy
For the clinicians working on the front lines of the obesity epidemic, FUJIFILM is releasing in the U.S. a new wide-bore CT scanner, which is available in either 64 or 128 slice configurations. The FCT Embrace can be used for radiology, as well as in oncology applications, thanks to its built-in radiotherapy planning features. The […]
Siemens Releases New MRI and PET/CT Scanner for Radiation Therapy Planning
At the American Society for Radiation Oncology annual meeting, Siemens Healthineers has unveiled its RT Pro edition for Biograph Vision PET/CT scanner and MAGNETOM Sola 1.5 Tesla MRI machine to help with radiation therapy planning. Both systems are specifically designed to aid in planning of radiotherapy procedures and each features (Read more...)
Elekta Unity, a Revolutionary Combo of MRI and Linear Accelerator, Cleared in Europe
Elekta won European CE Mark approval for its Unity system that combines magnetic resonance imaging with a linear accelerator for highly targeted, real-time radiotherapy. The technology was originally the brainchild of physicists at UMC Utrecht in The Netherlands. Before their research found breakthroughs, it was believed that combining an MRI machi (Read more...)
Calypso Anchored Beacon Transponder for Lung Radiotherapy FDA Cleared
Varian won FDA clearance for its Calypso Anchored Beacon transponder for lung stereotactic body radiotherapy procedures. The device is positioned within a narrow airway close to or even on the tumor to be targeted. During radiotherapy procedures involving a Varian linear particle accelerator, the system tracks the motion of the transponder and adju (Read more...)
IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence System for Cancer Care: Interview with Elekta’s Andrew Wilson
Elekta, the big name in radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and oncology informatics that’s based in Sweden, recently partnered with IBM to offer the Watson for Oncology artificial intelligence (AI) platform along with its MOSAIQ Oncology Information System and other cancer care solutions. According to Richard Hausmann, the CEO of Elekta, it is &ldqu (Read more...)
U.S. to Get Its Own Supply of Radioisotopes Thanks to Approval of RadioGenix System
A good deal of advanced medical imaging to spot cancer tumors, and help to diagnose coronary artery disease and other conditions, relies on injecting radioisotopes into the body whose location can be tracked. The most common is technetium-99m (Tc-99m), but it has been in short supply because there are only a few nuclear power stations […]
Delta4 Discover Measures Radiation from Accelerators, Rolling Out in U.S.
ScandiDos, a firm out of Uppsala, Sweden, has begun installing its Delta4 Discover transmission detector in the U.S. with the first site at the The University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas. The devices measures the amount of radiation delivered to a patient from an accelerator. It’s designed, and approved, for use on Varian&rsquo (Read more...)
FDA Clears MEVION S250i Proton Therapy System with Pencil Beam Technology
Mevion Medical Systems, a company specializing in accelerating protons to very high energies, has now received FDA clearance for its new MEVION S250i system for intensity modulated proton therapy. The product features the company’s HYPERSCAN pencil beam scanning technology, that involves “energy layer switching” and automated coll (Read more...)
Nanoparticle-Based Imaging of Metastasis Throughout Body
Common radiological tumor detection technique these days is done using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can only detect tumors of a certain size or larger. This is a major limitation, as it leaves patients with smaller tumors that grow and spread undetected, preventing early treatment of many cancers. Researchers at Rutgers (Read more...)
Targeted Radiotherapy Combined with Immunotherapy Kills 100% of Colorectal Cancer
Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and from MIT are reporting the development of a new combination therapy that completely eliminates colon cancer, at least in laboratory mice. The technique is a type of radioimmunotherapy, which delivers radioactive particles directly to tumors on the backs of targeting antibodies that se (Read more...)
Varian’s New Flagship Radiotherapy System Now in Europe
Varian has released its Halcyon image-guided volumetric intensity modulated radiotherapy system (IMRT) in Europe at University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium. The system, recently FDA cleared, is designed to be speedier during prep, while delivering therapy, and providing an assessment of results. The number of steps that technicians have to undertake f (Read more...)
New Contrast Agent Points to Tumors, Helps Identify How Aggressive They Are
Differentiating between tumor types can be very important when choosing the right tools to fight a given cancer, but contrast agents that make tumors pop on MRI scans don’t provide much info other than where the target is. That may soon be changing, as researchers at Case Western Reserve University have developed a new MRI contrast [&hel (Read more...)
New Siemens MRI for Radiation Therapy: MAGNETOM RT Pro Edition for MAGNETOM Vida
Siemens Healthineers has just unveiled their brand new MAGNETOM RT Pro edition for MAGNETOM Vida, a 3 Tesla MRI scanner specifically designed for planning radiation therapy procedures. It has a new magnet, a pretty large 55x55x50 field of view, and an optional 60/200 XT gradient system that the firm believes may improve geometric dis (Read more...)
New Study Shows MR-HIFU Effective for Treating Bone Tumors in Children
Nine children were successfully treated for osteoid osteoma, a benign bone tumor, by doctors from Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC. The completion of the clinical trial marks a triumph for the new, noninvasive treatment method called magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU). This incisionless su (Read more...)
Varian’s Halcyon Image-Guided Volumetric Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy System Now FDA Cleared
Having unveiled it only two months ago, Varian has announced receiving FDA clearance for its Halcyon image-guided volumetric IMRT system. Varian has been working on improving the quality and shortening the time of treatment sessions, as well as making it easier to install, maintain, and train people using the system. The company has introduced (Read more...)
Varian Unveils Speedy New Halcyon Image-Guided Volumetric IMRT System
Varian is introducing the Halcyon, a new image-guided volumetric intensity modulated radiotherapy system that the firm says was designed, essentially from the ground up, to speed up and make easier the imaging, therapy, and even installation of the machine and the training required to use it. Built-in workflows have reduced the number of steps (Read more...)
Elekta Releases Unity, The First Commercial High-Field MR-Linac System
Elekta, the famous Swedish maker of radiation therapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy systems, is finally releasing a linear accelerator therapy and magnetic resonance imaging scanner in one unified system. Many physicists and engineers thought that this would be impossible, as quickly moving charged particles shooting out of an accelerator a (Read more...)