March 30, 2016 — IBA (Ion Beam Applications SA) announced it has signed a contract with the University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven) and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) to install Belgium’s first proton therapy center. The project will be conducted in collaboration with Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc and other Belgian universities. IBA was awarded the contract following a comprehensive European public tender conducted by UZ Leuven.
IBA will equip the new center with its Proteus One system. The contract will also include a long-term maintenance agreement. The typical end-user price for a Proteus One system with such a maintenance contract is between EUR 35 and 40 million. This new center is expected to open in 2018.
Marc Decramer, chief executive officer of UZ Leuven, commented, “We are very pleased to announce that we will be working with IBA. The UZ Leuven mission is to deliver the highest quality and most innovative patient care with unrelenting attention to clinical excellence, patient care and patient safety. It was therefore a natural decision for us to equip our hospital with a proton therapy solution as it is the most targeted treatment in the fight against cancer. Following a comprehensive public tender, we have chosen IBA because it provided the proton therapy solution that best fitted our needs.”
In proton therapy, protons deposit the majority of their effective energy within a precisely controlled range, directly within the tumor, sparing healthy surrounding tissue. Higher doses can be delivered to the tumor without increasing the risk of side effects and long-term complications, thereby improving patient outcomes and quality of life.
Proteus One is equipped with pencil beam scanning, a technology that offers a millimeter precision treatment, delivered with very high levels of conformity and dose uniformity, even in complex-shaped tumors, whilst at the same time sparing the surrounding healthy tissue.
For more information: www.iba-worldwide.com
