The CEO of the company, Dr. Michael Marash: This is a more precise radiation treatment and does less damage to the healthy tissue around the tumor
It turns out that there is still no proton therapy center in Israel and patients who need these radiations to be cured of cancerous tumors are forced to travel abroad. The Ministry of Health recommended the establishment of such a center, but it involves equipment 12 m high (that is, a 3-story building) and the construction of an underground bunker, which will protect it from the radiation. The Israeli company P-Cure has developed a technology to build a photon-based radiation device that is about a third the size of the existing equipment, and according to the company's CEO, Dr. Michael Marash, it is a more precise radiation treatment that does less damage to the healthy tissue around the tumor.
Not long ago, the Ministry of Health issued a request for proposals for the establishment of a proton therapy center in Israel within three years of the announcement of the award. This center will serve 790 patients a year. "
"More than half of cancer patients are treated with radiation - either in addition to surgery and chemotherapy, or only radiation. Today, X-rays are used to treat cancer. The problem is that x-ray beams are inaccurate and burn or damage the healthy tissues around the tumor as well. In the world, they found the solution using protons because their physics is the opposite of X-rays and does not damage the entire area from the entrance to the tumor.
"The technology entered the market all over the world a few decades ago. The first proton center was built in 1990 in a hospital in California and today most states have such centers. The problem is that the equipment is 10 times more expensive than any other alternative (X-rays, chemotherapy) and this is how this important medical service became a service provided to hospitals and wealthy patients. There are close to 10,000 centers in the world where they are treated with radiation, but only 40 percent were able to receive the protons and to receive them they had to build a separate three-story building for them, costing at least XNUMX million dollars. You can't demolish other buildings to build new ones in big city centers. For example, the Proton Center in New York, which opened in the summer of this year, moved three times during high school, and was finally established in the Bronx. On the one hand, there is a tremendous clinical need, on the other hand, the inability to grow either because of the size or because of the cost of the equipment."
And how can your solution help?
"P-Cure has developed a technology that better focuses the protons on the tumor, and during the development we discovered that it is possible to significantly reduce the size of the device and now it can be inserted alongside existing equipment in any oncology department. Apart from the decrease in price due to the reduction in size (which also requires one meter thick walls that already exist in hospitals and not five meters as in conventional proton centers) we were able to reduce the cost of purchasing a device by at least half, and we compared the cost of using a proton device to that of an X-ray based radiation device."
"In 2016, we installed our first device at NorthWest Medicine Hospital in Chicago. This is about success. We sold two systems to a private hospital in London to which we sent the first device not long ago, as well as two systems to China."
"We built a small factory in Shilot inside a bunker that contains all the equipment to carry out quality tests for the systems before they are delivered to the customers."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20QU6BpPeCc&t=52s
How did you manage to shrink the device?
"A conventional proton device, similar to X-ray radiation devices, has a centrifuge that allows radiation at low levels from all directions towards the tumor. We will eliminate the need by using technology that makes it possible to actually monitor the tumor and direct the beam only to it (Adaptive Therapy).
"In addition, we developed an imaging system for navigation that allows us to treat the patient not only lying down but also sitting up. The flexibility also benefited the patient, who could breathe better. The position can be adjusted to the comfort of the patient and thanks to this, much higher precision is reached in terms of the treatment. The elimination of the centrifuge is the main factor that made it possible to reduce the size of the device, as well as the thickness of the walls. Instead of a bunker with walls 3-5 meters thick, a thickness of one to two meters is sufficient, similar to the current standard in proton-based systems."
"P-Cure's vision is to change the direction of medical tourism and make Israel a strategic center for proton treatments. and a global center for cancer treatment technologies." concludes Dr. Marash.
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What's going on here!!!
"From entry to growth"
"The problem is the size of the equipment"
"And for patients who are rich in heart"
"But only one percent managed to absorb the protons"
"Passed during high school three times location"
"For every oncology department"
It's a shame there isn't a little more explanation on the technical side.
I didn't even understand why there was a need for 5 meter thick walls. Shouldn't proton radiation have low penetration?
Not long ago, the Ministry of Health issued a request for proposals for the establishment of a proton therapy center in Israel within three years of the announcement of the award. This center will serve 790 patients a year. "
"More than half of cancer patients are treated with radiation - either in addition to surgery and chemotherapy, or only radiation. Today, X-rays are used to treat cancer. The problem is that x-ray beams are inaccurate and burn or damage the healthy tissues around the tumor as well. In the world, they found the solution using protons because their physics is the opposite of X-rays and does not damage the entire area from the entrance to the tumor.