ScandiDos launches non-extrapolated radiation dose monitor

ScandiDos this week unveiled its non-extrapolated radiation dose monitor, Delta4 Synthesis, touting the accuracy of the device.

The announcement was made at the 58^th annual ASTRO meeting this week in Boston.

The Uppsala, Sweden-based company integrated the Delta4 Phantom and Delta4 Discover into 1 system, creating the 1st and only quality assurance device that provides exact measurements, president & founder Görgen Nilsson told MassDevice.com.

“It was a lot of homework,” he said. “We spent 5 years developing this device.” The company won 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its Delta4 Discover device in February.

As radiation treatments become more complex, doctors are more concerned about where the radiation is going while the patient is in treatment, VP of sales & marketing Ingemar Wiberg told us.

“The idea of [quality assurance] is old. We’ve done this in the past with simple treatments. But as treatments have become more complex, it’s been difficult to do. So far, it’s been limited to pre-treatment,” Wiberg explained. “We verify, with sub-millimeter precision, exactly where the radiation is going to the patient.”

The new system combines 2 of ScandiDos’ Delta4 technologies: The Phantom, a device used to test radiation doses before treatment, and the Discover, which monitors radiation doses delivered to patients during treatment. An array of 4,000 detectors can evaluate exactly where the radiation is going and the intensity of the beam while a patient undergoes treatment.

Other quality assurance systems use extrapolations to report on the treatment dose, which Wiberg says goes against the company’s philosophy. “We’ve always been very strict that we should only show what we can actually measure,” he told us.

Nilsson explained that clinics can refer to the data produced by ScandiDos’ system to ensure the tumor received the target radiation dose and evaluate any healthy tissue at risk of being irradiated.

He points out that generally, radiation dosages are accurate and go as planned. “In 98% of the cases, there isn’t a problem.” Nilsson said. “Only when there are discrepancies and deviations from the expected value, then they should know about it and know what’s going on and how big the discrepancy is and so on.”

“That’s something the customer really looks for,” he told us, “to have the accuracy and to have the ease of use in the system. And the patients know that they got the treatment they expect to get.”

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