Pyrexar Medical exhibited at the PTCOG-NA (Particle Therapy Cooperative Group - North America) held at the Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida.
The conference organizers invited Dr. Zeljko Vujaskovic, Director of the Division of Translational Radiation Sciences, University of Maryland School of Medicine, to be a featured speaker at the event. Dr. Vujaskovic presented "Hyperthermia and Protons: Is This the Safe Way to Get the 'Carbon Effect'?" which included some clinical results from the dual therapy. Dr. Vujaskovic and his team at the UMMC have been treating patients with combined hyperthermia and proton beam since the center opened in 2015. The hospital treats patients with the BSD-500 Superficial/Interstitial and the BSD-2000 Deep Regional Hyperthermia System along with protons with great success. His colleague, Dr. J.D. Snider, presented "Concurrent Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy and Hyperthermia: Growing Experience with Promising Results."
(L to R) Dr. Gerhard Sennewald, Dr. Sennewald Medizintechnik; Mark Falkowski, CEO and Mark Kidd, VP Sales and Business Development; Pyrexar Medical
Adding hyperthermia to proton therapy is not new. A BSD-2000 Deep Regional Hyperthermia System located at Kantonsspital Aarau, Switzerland, has established protocols for the combined treatment with excellent outcomes. But the hyperthermia suite and the proton center are a 30-minute drive apart. Therapeutic results can undoubtedly be achieved within the dual therapies recommended target window, but for obvious reasons, this can be a deterrent in best practice and clinical testing. Now with the world's first proton therapy and hyperthermia in the same center (See Hyperthermia + Proton Beam, Now in the US), there are more significant opportunities for clinical research.