Hitachi: MOU with Russian Medical and Research Institutions on Construction of Particle Beam Therapy Facilities

Strategic Partnership with European Medical Center and Budker Institute

Tokyo, April 30, 2013 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) today announced that it has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Group of Companies European Medical Center (GEMC) and the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP), of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to form a strategic partnership in the field of particle beam therapy system business in the Russian Federation. Through this partnership with GEMC and BINP, Hitachi intends to enter into the particle beam therapy system market in Russia, starting with the collaboration on two prospective projects.

For more than a decade, there has been a growing interest and demand for new treatment modalities of cancers by irradiating accelerated particles (protons or carbon ions) from tumors. In recent years, in Russia, where the percentage of cancer patients in the total population is comparatively higher than that of U.SA., Japan and some of the European countries, a number of medical institutions have been considering plans to newly construct a treatment facility equipped with the particle beam therapy systems, as part of their measures to strengthen cancer treatment capacities.

Backed by more than 20 years of history and tradition in Moscow, GEMC is one of the largest private medical institutions in Russia, operating 24-hour emergency clinics, pediatric hospitals, and women's hospitals at 5 locations in Moscow. The company is growing by investing into private medical facilities in Russia, as well as participating in their operation and dispatching doctors and medical staff. BINP, meanwhile, is a national research institution based in Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia. It is a leading research institute in Russia with significant technological excellence in accelerators, and its remarkable achievement includes building the world's first electron-positron collider.

Under the MOU, Hitachi aims to improve the performance, reliability, and safety of particle beam therapy systems through collaboration with GEMC and BINP, which may include the development and use of their key equipment. Hitachi also intends to collaborate with them on pilot projects which will help obtain necessary licenses required to supply Hitachi's particle beam therapy systems to the Russian market. Furthermore, considerations will be made on project financing and the development or use of key equipment for a proton beam therapy system for the planned construction of Hadron therapy facility at hospital No. 63 in Moscow, as well as the envisaged construction of proton beam therapy system and carbon ion beam therapy system for Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok. Hitachi also aims to expand market opportunities for its particle beam therapy systems throughout Russia in the future.

Hitachi started developing proton beam therapy systems approximately 20 years ago. The technology has earned widespread recognition as an effective cancer treatment, with systems having been supplied to the University of Tsukuba and Nagoya Proton Therapy Center in Japan. Outside Japan, Hitachi has supplied a system to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the USA, one of the world's largest specialist cancer hospitals. Particle beam therapy systems for Hokkaido University and three well-known clinics in the USA are currently under construction.

Through the delivery particle beam therapy system which incorporates Hitachi's state-of-the-art technologies, Hitachi aims to contribute to the innovation of cancer treatment and advanced radiation therapy. Furthermore, Hitachi will continue to promote its healthcare business globally, which is one of a key area in its social innovation business.
About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2011 (ended March 31, 2012) consolidated revenues totalled 9,665 billion yen ($117.8 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.
©

AVO Share Purchase Agreement with ADAM

Advanced Oncotherapy (AIM: AVO) is pleased to announce that it has signed a definitive Share Purchase Agreement for the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of ADAM S.A. (“ADAM”) for a consideration to the vendor of stock and warrants in Advanced Oncotherapy that will be equivalent to 29.9% of the issued ordinary share capital and warrants of the Company prior to the completion of the transaction.

The Swiss-Italian Alberto Colussi founded ADAM in 2007 and brought on board a team of experts in accelerator and detector technology from CERN founded ADAM. ADAM aims to capitalise on the know-how and infrastructure that CERN provides to build innovative accelerators for proton therapy and for conventional radiotherapy. ADAM's research and development activities have focused on two main fields: the design and construction of compact linear accelerators for conventional radiotherapy, and of compact linear accelerators for proton therapy. As a CERN spin-off company, CERN has provided and will continue to provide ADAM with offices and research facilities at the CERN Campus near Geneva. The Company announced on 11 April 2013 a Collaboration Agreement with ADAM and CERN to complete the development of ADAM’s proton beam technology for clinical application in hospitals.

Completion of the acquisition of ADAM will take place upon the closing of financing by Advanced Oncotherapy which will, inter alia, fund the completion of the development of ADAM's proprietary Linear Accelerator based Proton Beam Therapy technology referred to above. This financing is currently expected to close within the next 90 days.

The vendor of ADAM is Brahma AG (“Brahma”), the private Swiss holding and investment company for the Colussi family. Brahma has to date invested €14 million to develop ADAM’s technology and on the successful completion of the acquisition, ADAM will be debt free. On completion and subject to regulatory approval, Alberto Colussi, the Founder and President of ADAM and the Chairman and President of Brahma, Niccolo Colussi, the CEO of ADAM, and Luca Campaiola, a Director of ADAM, will join the Board of Advanced Oncotherapy.

Lord Evans of Watford, Chairman of Advanced Oncotherapy, said: “Our strategy to establish Advanced Oncotherapy as a leading provider of convenient, cost-effective and clinically superior treatment to patients with cancer, based on proven technologies, will move forward significantly with the acquisition of ADAM. ADAM’s management team are well known to us and share our vision of introducing disruptive technology - that will change cost models – to fast growing cancer treatment markets.”

Alberto Colussi, Chairman of ADAM, said: “We are pleased to have found partners who not only understand the technology we have developed with CERN but also the path to commercialisation of the applications of that technology. Together with Advanced Oncotherapy, and CERN, we look forward to completing the development of our proton beam technology and launching the resulting new products in global markets.”

Related Files: 2013 04 24 ADAM VO SPA FINAL

©

Varian and PSI collaboration on IMPT motion management

MedicalPhysicsWeb

BERGISCH-GLADBACH, GERMANY, 19 April 2013 – Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) and Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) are announcing a collaboration to further advance motion management techniques for proton therapy. The multi-year agreement, aimed at optimizing treatment strategies for indications such as cancer in the lung, liver, pancreas and breast, will evaluate strategies using a 4-D treatment planning simulator developed by PSI.

Proton therapy involves the use of a controlled beam of protons to target tumors with higher levels of precision than is possible with other forms of radiation therapy, potentially limiting damage to healthy surrounding tissue.

The Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland is a pioneer in the development of Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) techniques, and specializes in the treatment of pediatric patients. "We hope to exploit our unique methods for simulating clinically realistic organ motions for the study of motion mitigation techniques for spot scanned proton therapy," says Professor Tony Lomax from PSI. "This project will utilize 4-D motion data sets and dose calculations that can uniquely model patient motion variations that are difficult to capture with conventional data sets."

"Varian's ProBeam™* proton system was developed in collaboration with the PSI," says Moataz Karmalawy, general manager of Varian's Particle Therapy division. "We are delighted to expand our partnership with this internationally respected institute to include the development of indications-specific solutions. This collaboration will support our customers in the fight against cancers that have not typically been treated with proton therapy in the past."

The ability to treat moving tumors is increasingly important for proton therapy facilities worldwide. "When testing motion mitigation techniques, it's important to have a tool that can simulate the timed dose delivery for realistic tumor cases to determine the relative merit of the different techniques," says Jan Timmer, marketing director for Varian Particle Therapy. "PSI has developed excellent software for 4-D treatment planning and we want to support its further development and the ongoing evaluation of motion management techniques."

*CE mark and international registrations pending for ProBeam. Not available for sale in all markets.

About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies high-energy X-ray devices for cargo screening and non-destructive testing applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,200 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.

About Paul Scherrer Institute
PSI operates the first compact scanning gantry worldwide for proton radiation therapy of deep-seated tumors. The spot-scanning technique developed at PSI enables malignant tumors to be targeted with high precision deep inside in the body without damaging healthy tissue around the target area. By end of 2011, the PSI compact Gantry 1 had been used to treat more than 800 patients suffering from brain, skull-base or spinal cord tumors as well as abdominal sarcomas. Among the patients were more than 200 children and young people under the age of 20. PSI has treated children since 2004.
©

Large Hadron Collider scientists developing new cancer treatments

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
19 Apr 2013

It was built to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang in the hunt for the so-called God Particle, but now the technology behind the world’s biggest physics experiment may also provide a new way to treat cancer.

Scientists working at CERN, the home of the Large Hadron Collider, are developing new types of radiotherapy that can destroy tumours while damaging less of the surrounding tissue, helping to reduce side effects.

They have begun a five year research project to test different beams of ions – electrically charged atoms – for their ability to kill cancer cells.

Engineers are carrying out a £14 million upgrade on one of the particle accelerators linked to the LHC so that it can carry out medical research.


Physicists behind the project hope it will allow them to produce more effective treatments that can be afforded by the NHS.

Dr Stephen Myers, director of accelerator technology at CERN, said they were already working with a British company to build smaller versions of the 250 foot long ring needed to produce the particles so that it can be installed in hospitals.

He said: “We are hoping to develop new types of cancer therapy by testing all the different types of ions – like oxygen or carbon – to see which is the best.

“Current radiotherapies caused collateral damage to the surrounding tissue and that makes it difficult to treat some types of cancer, like eye melanomas or those that are hard to reach.

“Low energy ion beams can cause less damage as the destruction of the cells is dependent on the energy of the beam and it can be focused very precisely onto a tumour.

“This can allow patients to recover faster and surgeons can destroy more of the tumour, so survival rates are much better.

“We would like to see if we can bring everything down to a regular sized from and put one in every teaching hospital in Europe.”

Current radiotherapy techniques use X-rays and electron beams that are fired into the body to kill cancer cells, but can cause a lot of damage to healthy tissues, bringing unpleasant side effects.

A new type of radiotherapy which uses beams of particles known as protons is already starting to be used and has been found to produce better results.

The protons can be focused with greater accuracy than current radiotherapy methods, meaning that doctors can target more of the cancer without damaging the surrounding tissue.

However, proton beam therapy, as it is known, is available in just 32 hospitals around the world and just one in the UK – the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, where it is used to treat eye tumours.

Two more proton beam therapy centres are planned in Britain – with one due to be built in Manchester and another in London.

However, it costs hospitals £120 million for a proton beam therapy machine and treating a patient can cost between £90,000 and £120,000 each.

Scientists at CERN are now working with London-based company Advanced Oncotherapy to develop smaller and cheaper proton beam devices so that they can be more widely available.

Dr Michael Sinclair, the firm’s chief executive, hopes to install at least 10 new machines within the next five years.
He said that it could mean 12,000 cancer patients could receive the new type of treatment.

He said: “Proton beam therapy offers a significant improvement for patients with cancer than conventional radiotherapy, but so far the big problem has always been the cost.

“The machine developed by CERN has significant clinical advantages and will cost a third of equivalent equipment that is currently available.

“This is a game-changer – bringing a more effective cancer treatment to the masses.”

Britain contributes around £100 million a year to CERN, with the bulk of that being used to pay for the Large Hadron Collider.

Earlier this year, scientists announced that they had discovered a new type of particle that is believed to be a Higgs boson – the elusive so called God Particle that is believed to give other subatomic particles mass.

The 17 mile long particle accelerator, which is sited beneath the Swiss French border, near to Geneva, has now been shut down for two years while it undergoes a £70 million upgrade.

It is fed by a number of smaller particle accelerators which fire atoms or protons into the LHC for experiments.

Engineers are to convert one of these, known as the Low Energy Ion Ring, or LEIR, so that it can be used for biomedical research.

As well as testing different ions for their ability to kill cancer cells, scientists will also use it for experiments on how exposure to radiation from space can affect astronauts.
©

RaySearch licenses technology from GSI

MedicalPhysicsWeb
Apr 12, 2013

RaySearch Laboratories AB (publ.) has entered into a license agreement with GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany (GSI) regarding techniques for calculating radiobiological effective dose in ion beam treatments.

Ion beam therapy is the most advanced form of external radiotherapy where the tumor is irradiated with protons or carbon ions. Compared to conventional radiotherapy, where the tumor is irradiated with photons, the energy deposition of the ion beams can be controlled much more effectively. This means that the radiation dose can be delivered even more precisely and as a result, the unwanted dose to healthy tissues can be reduced, leading to a reduction of treatment-related side effects. However, the biological effect of ions on tissue is different compared to traditional photon beams and this difference must be accounted for during treatment planning for ion beams.

The Biological Modeling research team at GSI, led by Dr. Michael Scholz, has for a long time developed and refined the so called Local Effect Model (LEM) for calculating the relative biological effectiveness during irradiation with therapeutic carbon ion beams. In the LEM model the survival of cells irradiated with ion beams is predicted based on their response to photons. In the nineties the group at GSI pioneered the optimization of radiobiological dose within the framework of the LEM model. The technique is now well established in the field of carbon beam therapy and was in clinical use at GSI for a decade (1997 to 2008) and is currently used at the carbon therapy centers HIT in Heidelberg, Germany, and at CNAO in Pavia, Italy, and soon also at the Shanghai Proton & Heavy Ion Hospital in Shanghai, China.

The new agreement, licensed through the Patent and Technology Transfer department at GSI, gives RaySearch the right to integrate algorithms and know-how from GSI related to the LEM in RaySearch's RayStation® treatment planning system. The LEM and RaySearch's algorithms for dose calculation will be built into the system's module for carbon treatment plan optimization.

“We are happy to have RaySearch as a strong partner in the field of therapy planning systems, and we are confident that this assures continuous support of ion beam therapy centers with state-of-the-art biophysical modelling for treatment plan optimization. We also hope that this represents the starting point for a long-term cooperation that will help to facilitate the translation from cutting edge research to clinical applications”, says Michael Scholz, Head of the Biological Modelling research group at GSI.

“GSI is a world leader in development of technologies for ion beam therapy and we are the leading supplier of advanced treatment planning software. We are therefore very excited to collaborate with them and integrate the LEM technology in RayStation®. The first customer that will use RayStation® for planning of carbon ion treatment is the MedAustron center in Austria that is scheduled to start treating patients in 2015”, says Johan Löf, CEO of RaySearch.
About RayStation®

RayStation® integrates all RaySearch's advanced treatment planning solutions into a flexible treatment planning system. It combines unique features such as multi-criteria optimization tools with full support for 4D adaptive radiation therapy. It also includes functionality such as RaySearch's market-leading algorithms for IMRT and VMAT optimization and highly accurate dose engines for photon, electron and proton therapy. The system is built on the latest software architecture and has a graphical user interface offering state-of-the-art usability.
About RaySearch

RaySearch Laboratories is a medical technology company that develops advanced software solutions for improved radiation therapy of cancer. RaySearch's products are mainly sold through license agreements with leading partners such as Philips, Nucletron, IBA Dosimetry, Varian and Accuray. To date, 15 products have been launched through partners and RaySearch's software is used at over 2,000 clinics in more than 30 countries. In addition, RaySearch offers the proprietary treatment planning system RayStation® directly to clinics. RaySearch was founded in 2000 as a spin-off from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and the company is listed in the Small Cap segment on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.
©

AVO announces Collaboration Agreement

Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) is pleased to announce a newly established synergy collaboration between CERN and Application of Detectors and Accelerators to Medicine SA (“ADAM”).

A team of experts in accelerator and detector technology from CERN founded ADAM with Italian entrepreneur Dr Alberto Colussi in 2007. ADAM aims to capitalise on the know-how and infrastructure that CERN provides to build innovative accelerators for proton therapy and for conventional radiotherapy.

ADAM's research and development activities have focused on two main fields: the design and construction of compact linear accelerators for conventional radiotherapy, and of compact linear accelerators for proton therapy. The next phase of the collaboration, a newly established synergy between ADAM, CERN and AVO will complete the Proton Beam accelerator complex.

“For CERN the transfer of technology and know-how in the medical field is an important part of the impact of basic science on societal issues,” says CERN Director of Accelerators and Technology Steve Myers. “This partnership is a pragmatic way to share our competences and know-how with industrial partners who are able to bring this innovative medical solution to the market.”

Related Files: 2013_04_11 CERN ADAM announcement FINAL

©