October 27, 2016 — IBA announced in September that 50,000 patients have been treated by clinical partners using IBA’s proton therapy technology.
Today, on average, one new patient is treated every hour on IBA systems around the globe, according to Yves Jongen, chief research officer and founder of IBA. The company’s mission, Jongen said, is to make proton therapy available to an estimated 20 percent of radiation patients that could benefit from this type of treatment.
More and more clinical opinion leaders are working on collecting and producing evidence confirming the added value of proton therapy. This addresses not only comparative clinical outcome, but also economic effectiveness of the total treatment. Proton therapy is offering new hope for patients with specific brain, eye, lung and head and neck cancers, due to their very sensitive locations in the body, where it is imperative to preserve surrounding healthy tissue. Most importantly, proton therapy has emerged as a preferred treatment option for pediatric cases, according to IBA, where the damage done to the still growing tissues and organs of children is often irreversible.
This is the reason why IBA said it is investing between 12-15 percent of its revenue in research and development (R&D) — currently the largest share in the sector. One of the outcomes of IBA’s R&D was the ProteusOne proton therapy solution. This is the most compact proton therapy system ever designed, according to the company, which is easier to implement, operate and finance.
IBA said the future of proton therapy is even more encouraging in the light of the advent of adaptive proton therapy (adaPT), widely considered as the next breakthrough in the field. Adaptive workflows, as modular proton therapy processes, add yet another layer of accuracy in what many consider the most precise and least intrusive cancer treatment method. IBA recently created an international online Community platform, leadingthepath.org, to enable experts in the field from all over the world to exchange experiences, discuss best practices and enhance knowledge, to improve the next generation of proton therapy treatment.
For more information: www.iba-worldwide.com
October 13, 2026 
