Making Proton Therapy Compact

Undertaken in collaboration with the University of California, Davis Cancer Center, the compact proton therapy system would fit in any major cancer center and cost about one-fifth as much as a full-scale machine. This innovation has garnered researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers an award for excellence in technology transfer by the Federal Laboratory Consortium in 2008.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) licensed the technology in February 2007 to TomoTherapy Incorporated (NASDAQ: TTPY) of Madison, Wis., through an agreement with the Regents of the University of California.

Proton therapy is considered the most advanced form of radiation therapy available, but size and cost have limited the technology’s use to only six centers in the United States and 25 worldwide. Together, they have treated an estimated 40,000 patients.

TomoTherapy will fund development of the first clinical prototype, which will be tested on patients at the UC Davis Cancer Center. If clinical testing is successful, TomoTherapy will bring the machines to market.

Conventional proton therapy facilities use cyclotrons and synchrotrons to deliver protons, and these large facilities can require 90,000 square feet and cost more than $100 million to build.

The Livermore team has overcome the size obstacle by using a dielectric wall accelerator technology that enables proton particles to be accelerated to an energy of at least 200 million electron volts within a lightweight, insulator-based structure about 6.5 feet long.

LLNL’s dielectric wall accelerator advance grew out of work to develop compact, high-current accelerators, such as flash X-ray radiography sources for nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship.

The current patent portfolio consists of 20 inventions. More inventions are expected as full-scale feasibility is demonstrated.

For more information, visit the Industrial Partnerships Office and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.