Image courtesy of Hitachi Ltd.
September 15, 2015 — Hitachi Ltd. announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for commercial supply of the new Probeat-V system designed and developed for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Treatments began in late June and the first patient treatment was completed in August 2015.
The Probeat-V is a state-of-the-art proton beam therapy system used to deliver Hitachi’s Discrete Spot Scanning capability to each treatment room. The 190-degree half gantries provide efficient yet spacious treatment room environments; patients no longer need to be positioned inside a 360-degree gantry, as all treatment angles are achieved by a 6-degree of freedom (DOF) couch. A 30 percent smaller treatment spot size, achieved through refinements in nozzle design, enables the system to achieve highly precise treatments. In addition, installation and commissioning activities are already underway at a second Mayo facility in Phoenix, Arizona, with treatments scheduled to start in the spring of 2016.
Mayo Clinic treats more than 1.3 million patients annually from all 50 states and 143 countries. Mayo Clinic has maintained its position as one of the top hospitals in U.S. News & World Report rankings for more than 20 years.
The Probeat-V system also offers:
- Beam matching (within 5 percent) technology allowing patients to be treated in any room at any time;
- Integrated setup rooms to increase patient throughput. Although patients’ visits may often take between 15 to 30 minutes, the time required for irradiation is usually only a few minutes. At Mayo Clinic, setup rooms allow patients to be stabilized and pre-positioned offline, optimizing treatment room utilization and shortening patients’ visits; and
- An improved user interface, co-developed with Mayo Clinic.
For more information: www.hitachimed.com