SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 19, 2015– Mevion Medical Systems is expanding its collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis to study Mevion’s HYPERSCAN pencil beam scanning technology and its effects on the delivery of intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) treatment delivery. The two institutions have entered into a master research agreement to expand their existing arrangement, which supports clinical education programs for proton therapy.

The research leverages the clinical expertise of Washington University’s Department of Radiation Oncology in proton therapy, motion management, image-guided and adaptive radiation therapy. It utilizes the MEVION S250 proton therapy technology located in the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The announcement was made at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), held Oct. 18 – 21 in San Antonio.

“It is exciting to explore the clinical advantages of our HYPERSCAN technology with a prestigious research institution such as Washington University, with an ultimate goal to expand the clinical benefits of proton therapy,” said Townsend Zwart, PhD, senior director of advanced development at Mevion Medical Systems. “Our HYPERSCAN pencil beam scanning technology can deliver highly robust IMPT treatments by scanning faster and with sharper spots. Through this program, we will explore some of the most pressing questions associated with pencil beam scanning delivery, which are linked to uncertainties with patient and tumor motion and lead clinicians to potentially question treatment efficacy.”
Sasa Mutic, PhD, director of the Medical Physics Division at Washington University added, “Our proton therapy system has had nearly two years of treating patients. We are excited to leverage our system and our proton therapy expertise for research that will lead to a better understanding of the best ways to use proton therapy to treat cancer patients.”

Washington University has also developed a multi-center proton patient registry and clinical education programs to benefit all proton therapy centers worldwide. “Our patient registry is open to any particle therapy center that wishes to participate. We are excited to collect both clinical data along with patient treatment plans in order to track clinical outcomes,” said Jeffrey Bradley, MD, medical director of the S. Lee Kling Proton Therapy Center. The Siteman Cancer Center has extensive experience in developing clinical registries, and this proton registry benefits from the integration of a unique dosimetry component that will allow centers to have access to sample treatment plans.

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