IBA CE marks system to enhance anticancer proton therapy
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Ion Beam Applications (IBA) has CE marked its second-generation Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS) system for sale in Europe. It is designed to enhance the performance of anticancer proton therapies, by producing a variable beam that narrows to 3mm, giving physicians greater dose control and allowing healthy tissue to be spared. The new system controls the dose across three dimensions, as opposed to photon-based intensity-modulated radiation therapy systems, which can only control two dimensions, IBA (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) claims. Proton therapy is thought to be better than conventional photon radiotherapy, as it can target dosing more accurately and therefore decrease radiation exposure to healthy tissue. A prototype PBS device was cleared by the US FDA in 2008.