Philips highlights new radiation oncology offerings

Philips Medical Systems demonstrated new products designed to improve accuracy and workflow for radiation oncology at this week's annual meeting of the American Association of Physics in Medicine (AAPM) in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The three new Philips products will be available on the company's Pinnacle3 radiation therapy planning system and include:
  • Conformal Arc radiation planning software: the software allows Pinnacle3 users to treat patients with hundreds of beams while conforming to the target. Philips said that the ability to conform an arc of beams used to kill cancer allows clinicians to better target and treat tumor cells while avoiding potential complications.

  • Pinnacle3's physics modeling tools: Providing physicists with a more precise representation of their actual linear accelerator's parameters, the tools help physicists ensure that a dose algorithm is accurate and precise and avoid dosing healthy tissues.

  • Philips sliding-window intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning: The tool enables users of P3IMRT (software on the Pinnacle3 system) that have Varian linear accelerators to plan treatments where the radiation is delivered as the multi-leaf collimators (MLC) move across the treatment field.
Philips was also on-board highlighting One-Click IMRT, an alternative to sliding-window. One-Click IMRT provides direct machine parameter optimization and is designed to improve the efficiency of standard IMRT treatments by reducing the number of treatment delivery positions performed by the linear accelerator. One-Click IMRT is designed to benefit users of all manufacturers' linear accelerators. Philips said it expects to release this new feature in the fall with P3IMRT version 2.0.

In addition, Philips demonstrated its existing oncology imaging systems: AcQSim CT, Gemini PET/CT and Panorama 0.23T open MR; and its simulation and planning systems, which include AcQSim3, CT LOC, Pinnacle3, P3IMRT and Syntegra automated image registration software.

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