Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, 27 September, 2018 - IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A., EURONEXT), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions for the treatment of cancer, today announces the arrival and rigging of a 220-ton cyclotron at the new Inova Schar Cancer Institute facility located in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. This innovative center will be equipped with IBA’s Proteus®PLUS solution, optimized for best-in-class treatment with Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS) capability and integrated Cone Beam CT Image Guidance (CBCT).

The Cyclone®230 accelerator arrived from IBA’s headquarters in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, to Falls Church, VA on September 24, 2018. Full rigging of the two-gantry room configuration will be completed on September 26. The center is scheduled to treat its first patient in late 2019. The contract, signed on July 5, 2017, also includes a long-term operation and maintenance agreement.

To date, IBA has sold 53 proton therapy centers worldwide.

The Inova Schar Cancer Institute is an interdisciplinary flagship facility for cancer care across the Inova Health System and is focused on clinical care, translational research and psychosocial support. Inova Schar Cancer Institute is building a new state-of-the-art facility, opening in the spring of 2019, at the Inova Center for Personalized Health, a 117-acre campus on the Capital Beltway. The proton therapy center - joining an existing advanced radiation oncology department - is an important milestone in their mission to provide personalized cancer therapies, in conjunction with a collaborative and patient-focused approach to cancer care.

Beth Klein, President of IBA, North America Region, located in Reston, Virginia, commented: “We are proud to deliver this important installation milestone to a facility of such quality and importance in the Washington DC area. IBA’s deep and broad experience in proton therapy, makes us ideally suited to partner with Inova, to bring proton therapy to more patients across the region who will benefit from this leading-edge cancer treatment. In addition, having our own technology available for IBA’s North American headquarter’s employees and their families at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, fulfills a personal mission for IBA’s North American team members.”

Gopal K. Bajaj, MD, Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Inova, added, “The addition of proton therapy to our cancer center exemplifies Inova’s commitment to providing the most cutting-edge therapies to the patients we serve. This forward-looking approach to the future of cancer care is embodied throughout all aspects of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute. We greatly value our clinical and technical collaboration with the team at IBA and are delighted to jointly celebrate this milestone on behalf of the residents of Northern Virginia. The arrival of the cyclotron represents the technical ‘heart’ of our proton therapy center and ushers in a new generation of radiation therapy, unsurpassed by any other facility in Northern Virginia.”

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