2024-A year of growing up but not growing away

2024 has been a year of excitement for Leo Cancer Care with big leaps forward in terms of partnerships, installations, and technological advancements.
Our biggest announcement this year and a cause for big celebration for the team is the regulatory clearance for Eve, our upright patient positioning system. This clearance authenticates what we already knew: this technology is revolutionary and deserves a place in medical history.

Leading the way

Joining the Leo Cancer Care scientific advisory board was Dr Nancy Lee, she brings with her a wealth of knowledge and expertise and a passion for improving treatment for patients that aligns so well with Leo Cancer Care’s mission.

Dr Ajit Singh has acted as an advisor to CEO Stephen Towe for a number of years. He has had and continues to have an amazing career in the healthcare sector and has been a great supporter of a number of startup companies. February of this year he accepted a role as Executive advisor to the Board and we feel honored that he accepted this role.

New partners

Joining the Leo Cancer Care family this year as part of our continued mission to be beam agnostic and make radiation therapy as accessible as possible was ProTom International , ProNova Solutions and LinearBeam.

TibaRay joined us in partnership at such an exciting time, to develop a new class of linear accelerators that will have higher beam power and higher efficiency, are more compact, and are more economical to manufacture.

In April we announced a groundbreaking deal with The National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) in Italy, the worlds’ most advanced oncology center able to deliver protons and carbon ion therapy, they have agreed to install our upright scanner and patient positioning system Marie in front of one of their existing fixed beam.

A little further across the Pacific Ocean QST Hospital of Chiba, Japan, took delivery of Leo Cancer Care’s demonstration Upright Patient positioning system in September of this year and has begun researching reproducibility and comfort. We are really looking forward to being able to share the results of their work.

Gunma University Heavy Ion Medical Center is a world-renowned institution and as part of their commitment to supporting innovation and research, they also installed a demonstration version of our upright patient positioning system, to spearhead valuable research into reproducibility and new immobilization techniques.

Anzai Medical are the latest company to form a partnership with Leo Cancer Care as they become the official distributor in Japan. Their partnership is a significant step in improving the access to this technology as we feel the excitement for our upright technology grow in Asia.

From Teal to Green

In May we announced that Macmillan Cancer Support had chosen to award a strategic investment to Leo Cancer Care as part of its Innovation Impact Investment Portfolio. This investment touched the heart of the company as Macmillan is a charity that so many members of the team admire or have been personally involved with.
Macmillan Cancer Support joins a number of other generous investors this year that have helped the company to stay on track with its mission and expand even further across the globe.

 

Stephen Towe reflected: “Financing the business is the ‘fuel’ to keep it going but it is the partnerships we have created along the way that will drive us over the finish line, taking this innovation to those who need it most.”

Things were feeling a little snug

We feel so fortunate to have a team that is constantly evolving and expanding to include individuals that bring so much knowledge and passion to their work. With recent expansion within the team, it was time to upgrade our homes. Our US office has been undergoing a 3000-square-foot expansion to help accommodate the larger team and the production of our Marie System. The UK team has moved 5 miles down the road from the healthcare industry hub in Crawley to a much larger facility. As interest in our technology grows in Asia we worked with the Singapore Economic Development Board to create a Singapore entity which will act as a hub for Asia.

Graduating with color

ASTRO 2024 was the platform from which we revealed to the world our new branding with a new look, colors and logo. Having been in the medical device space for the last 6 years we felt it was time to show our maturity and step forward as an industry innovator. Our new look has our person-centered ethos woven through it was well as our promise to stand out, be different and be ‘unapologetically bold’.

“Research is creating new knowledge”

This year we have shown our commitment to strengthening and deepening the pool of research that exists supporting upright radiotherapy.
The Upright Radiotherapy and Imaging Research Consortium of which Tracy Underwood, head of translational research at Leo Cancer Care is a founding member held its second annual meeting at ESTRO in Glasgow and drew in speakers from around the globe.

It was also announced that Leo Cancer Care is an industrial partner participating in UPLIFT, a multi-million euro research and training project on upright radiotherapy.

And the research doesn’t stop there. At ASTRO we announced the formation of the Upright Photon Alliance, a unique consortium of global healthcare providers; Centre Léon Bérard, Cone Health, IHH Healthcare, Mayo Clinic and OncoRay who will embark on research focusing on upright photon treatment using Leo Cancer Care’s technology.

Leo Cancer Care has delivered 6 research presentations across a number of congresses including ESTRO, ASTRO, PTCOG and ISRP and members of our team have been named authors on the following papers: “Calculation method for novel upright CT scanner isodose curves” and “Particle arc therapy status and potential”.

Goodbye to 2024

As we say goodbye to 2024 we also say goodbye our latest Marie system as it starts its journey from our rather chilly Middleton office to sunny California to find its new home with Stanford Health Care just in time for Christmas.

We can look back on these last 12 months and be proud of what we have achieved. We have reached milestones, made connections, made advancements not only in our own work but also pledged to support the development and future of upright radiotherapy in general with participation in prestigious research programs working alongside other educational facilities and industrial institutions. We also have shown our continued commitment to stay true to our original mission to provide for people a form of radiation therapy that is ‘More Human’ whether that is through comfort, eye-contact and connection with healthcare professionals or by making it more accessible with notable economic benefits.

We continue to be proud of the extremely hard work of each member of the Leo Cancer Care team and are so grateful for the continued support of our costumers, partners and investors.

We wish you all happy holidays and look forward to seeing you in the new year.