Collaboration with Sun Nuclear helps improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of radiation oncology treatment planning

Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Barcelona, Spain – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, is showcasing its integrated radiation oncology solutions in the exhibition at the European Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ESTRO) 37th Annual Meeting in Barcelona, Spain. Focused on enhancing precision therapy delivery, optimizing radiation dose management and reducing time to treatment, Philips’ dedicated radiation oncology solutions help deliver more accurate, comprehensive treatment plans. In addition, Philips is announcing a collaboration with Sun Nuclear to integrate its suite of PlanIQ™ software with Philips’ Pinnacle 3 16.2 Auto-Planning to aid clinicians in establishing feasible treatment goals.

“Today’s radiation oncology treatment planning processes are still fragmented, labor-intensive and time-consuming, potentially producing inconsistent results and delaying the start of treatment,” said Ardie Ermers, General Manager Radiation Oncology, Philips. “Creating a patient-specific treatment plan that is designed around a robust assessment of the patient is essential. By integrating innovative tools, systems and software, Philips helps improve care delivery, time-to-treatment and overall patient satisfaction.”

To further its mission in radiation oncology treatment planning, Philips is collaborating with Sun Nuclear to integrate its suite of PlanIQ™ software with Pinnacle 3 16.2 Auto-Planning. Based on each patient’s own anatomy, PlanIQ uses unique, patented technology to provide the clinician with achievable, patient-specific goals for the treatment plan. Integrated with Pinnacle 3 Auto-Planning, a personalized treatment plan can be created more efficiently.

“We are pleased to partner with Philips to bring the powerful capabilities of PlanIQ to the Pinnacle 3 user community,” said Jeff Simon, Sun Nuclear’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is an exciting opportunity for both of our organizations to advance radiation therapy quality and strengthen overall patient safety, while providing radiation oncology teams with a best-in-class solution to efficiently achieve accurate, personalized plans.”

ESTRO exhibition highlights
At the exhibition at this year’s ESTRO conference, Philips is highlighting a portfolio of solutions to help enable a confident path to treatment focused on the key areas of imaging and simulation, treatment planning, and tumor follow-up and response. With integrated tools, systems and software that span from imaging to treatment planning, Philips’ Radiation Oncology Solutions help improve patient care, accelerate time to treatment and enhance patient satisfaction, while maximizing the value of a provider’s investment.

Imaging and simulation
For imaging and simulation, Philips’ iPatient for Big Bore CT provides a patient-centered imaging workflow that helps drive consistency in image quality from one scan to the next across diverse patient populations, which is particularly relevant for cancer patients. The iPatient platform provides a standardized approach to imaging simulation with advanced 4D imaging applications, making patient setup fast and easy while ensuring image quality and precision. The recently announced IQon Spectral CT Elite features enhanced tumor characterization, providing diagnostic certainty for oncology clinicians and their patients, as well as a new radiation therapy planning couch.

The Philips Ingenia MR-RT platform is the world’s first MR system with a commercial MR-only simulation package, leading a paradigm shift in radiotherapy planning. With the planned extension of MR-only simulation to include general pelvic soft-tissue cancers [1] including rectal, bladder, gynecological and prostate, Philips is committed to expanding the impact of this innovation and simplifying MR-based planning workflows.

Philips is the MR-technology partner of Elekta and its MR-linac system. Elekta MR-linac is the only system that integrates an advanced linear accelerator with cutting-edge, high-field (1.5 Tesla) magnetic resonance imaging without compromising either system. Philips’ MR simulation package for Elekta MR-linac [2] is designed to exploit the many similarities and synergies between the Philips Ingenia MR-RT and Elekta MR-linac and to provide consistent workflows and image quality from MR simulation through online MR guidance during radiation treatment. A common high-field image generation technology enables similar image quality and the same MR console user interfaces, coil setup and patient positioning workflows. This helps to enhance reproducibility, accelerate learning curves and drive continuity across the care pathway.

Treatment planning
Philips’ leading radiation treatment planning solutions include Pinnacle 3 16.2 with Auto-Planning, featuring advanced automated tools that reduce the total time required to create IMRT or VMAT plans. Pinnacle 3 helps clinicians make effective decisions based on changes in the patient anatomy and dose exposure. It was recently installed alongside IBA’s Proteus®ONE proton therapy system at Proton Partners International’s Rutherford Cancer Centre in South Wales, the first ever to provide High Energy Proton Therapy in the UK.

Tumor follow-up and response
IntelliSpace Portal 10 is an advanced visualization and analysis solution designed to give radiologists a comprehensive clinical view while helping them work quickly and reducing variance in analysis – offering Tumor Analysis and Treatment Response tools with a streamlined workflow for follow-up and analysis of oncology patients. Advanced visualization and analysis tools provide the ability to easily pair all Philips modalities and healthcare IT solutions.

Philips Vereos Digital PET/CT, the world’s first and only fully digital PET/CT system, delivers improved detectability and characterization of small lesions [3]. The system offers uncompromised detectability and quantification at half the PET dose [4] and also provides improved lesion detectability in one tenth of the time [5]. Vereos simplifies the path to clinical decision making through a faster, more confident path to cancer treatment.

For more information about Philips’ presence at the show, including the full suite of Philips radiation oncology technology and integrated solutions, visit Philips at booth #1300 at ESTRO or at the Philips ESTRO event website. For live updates throughout #ESTRO37, follow @PhilipsLiveFrom.

[1] MR-only simulation for general pelvis is considered work in progress, is not CE marked yet and is not available for sale or distribution.
[2] The MR simulation package and the Elekta MR-Linac are work in progress and not available for sale or distribution.
[3] Nguyen NC, Image Quality and Diagnostic Performance of a Digital PET Prototype in Patients with Oncologic Diseases: Initial Experience and Comparison with Analog PET, J Nucl Med 2015; 56:1378–1385.
[4] Liu X et al, Impact of FDG Dose Reduction on Lesion Quantification in Dynamic PET: A Simulation Study Based on Clinical Trial Data, SNMMI 2016.
[5] Zhang J., Evaluation of speed of PET acquisition: How fast can we go? - A validation of list mode PET simulation approach with true acquisitions, SNMMI 2017.