MEVION AND FLASH

FLASH Therapy*, a non-invasive, ultra-high dose rate technique delivered in less than one second, may dramatically improve the cancer-fighting benefits of therapeutic radiation by shortening treatment courses and lessening side effects.

Driven by innovation and guided by a coalition of clinical partners and FLASH thought leaders, Mevion’s Advanced Development team has developed dose rates in excess of 200 Gy/sec and has demonstrated FLASH normal tissue sparing in mortality tests on small animals. This foundational work enables Mevion to further advance and develop this potentially promising cancer treatment.

FIRST DEMONSTRATION OF FLASH EFFECT AT BRAGG PEAK

In October 2020, Mevion presented the first pre-clinical results of its research, demonstrating the FLASH effect using a commercial MEVION S250i proton accelerator.

This study:

  • showed a clear signal in improved survival curves for FLASH irradiated mice;
  • is the first demonstration of the FLASH effect at the Bragg Peak;
  • indicated the promise of combining Bragg peak dose conformality and FLASH normal tissue sparing in one delivery system.

Watch our talk now and learn more: Mevion and FLASH Therapy

FLASH DELIVERY TECHNIQUE FOR LARGE VOLUMES

Mevion is actively exploring techniques to deliver FLASH dose rates to a larger volume of several hundred cubic centimeters or more, a common irradiation volume for typical cancer patients.

Mevion has approached this research with Monte Carlo modeling and is pursuing additional machine development to demonstrate that adjacent intensity-modulated small volumes can be delivered at FLASH dose rates separately. Those individual small volumes can then be combined to create a single large volume1, that will benefit from FLASH normal tissue sparing. This technique offers the possibility to combine both IMPT and FLASH in one delivery system.

Reference: 1. Evans, Tucker, et al. “Time-dependent dose calculation for FLASH treatment planning.” Poster at PTCOG 2020