August 1, 2008 - Healthcare professionals need an authoritative resource on the Internet designed to quickly provide answers to urgent treatment questions, so Epocrates partnered with BMJ Group, publisher of the British Medical Journal, to create a new online product that delivers practical and up-to-date disease diagnosis and treatment guidelines.

July 31, 2008 - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. today offered $4.5 billion in cash for its cancer drug partner, ImClone Systems, a biotechnology company that makes ERBITUX (Cetuximab), a drug used in combination with radiation therapy for the treatment of advanced head and neck cancers.

ImClone’s board has not commented on the proposal, which offers its stockholders $60 per share, a 30 percent premium to New York-based ImClone's closing price of $46.44 Wednesday. New York-based Bristol-Myers already owns about 17 percent of ImClone.

Xoft Inc. recently received FDA clearance for applicators to be used with the Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System for the treatment of endometrial cancer.

Previously cleared for accelerated treatment of early stage breast cancer, the Axxent System, a proprietary technology platform designed to deliver localized, non-radioactive, isotope-free radiation treatment in minimally-shielded clinical settings, also recently received expanded FDA clearance for use in the treatment of other cancers or conditions where radiation therapy is indicated.

Nucletron said the FDA cleared its Oncentra Brachy, a comprehensive volume-based treatment planning solution designed to optimize cancer treatment planning with brachytherapy.

Elekta recently received FDA clearance for its Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT).

Reportedly empowering clinicians to treat more patients in significantly less time, Elekta VMAT offers the clinical efficacy of IMRT delivered in a fraction of the time, providing rapid treatment with daily 3D image guidance. Features of VMAT include faster treatment times, precise dose control, reduced radiation dose to healthy tissue and 3D Volumetric imaging.

The Piranha and Barracuda reportedly offer a complete range of capabilities to measure the important QA parameters on all types of X-ray systems. Both are based on solid-state technology. The Barracuda has available bias voltage for the use of ionization chambers.

BrainLAB said it received 510(k) clearance for its Monte Carlo Dose Calculation Algorithm, which is already being used at several clinical cooperation sites worldwide.

Calypso Medical's implantable Beacon electromagnetic transponders received a new FDA indication for the use of with the Calypso System in external beam radiation therapy.

Orfit Industries America's Efficast thermoplastic mask, part of the Raycast High-precision Patient Immobilization/Positioning System, which applies a new technology for head, neck and shoulder immobilization systems used in radiation therapy, is on display at ASTRO 2008.

The system is said to allow for less than 2 mm of movement by the patient. Orfit is also offering a hands-on demonstration of the system for the duration of the show at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

TQA, or Tomo Quality Assurance, is reportedly the first integrated, machine-specific quality assurance (QA) solution to be offered by a radiation therapy vendor. The TQA application streamlines the collection and simplifies the review of data used to monitor radiation therapy equipment and procedures. All TQA data can be exported for third-party validation.

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