World’s First Upright Photon Alliance workshop

On a cold snowy morning in late February in Flint Michigan, an extraordinary group of individuals came together to discuss how they will pave the way and make radiation therapy history. Centre Léon Bérard, Cone Health and Mayo Clinic, three of the five founding institutions of the Upright Photon Alliance, all came together for the first Upright Photon Alliance workshop. Each institution sent a team of individuals, each person integral to their upright photon project.

A shared passion

The objective of this workshop was to learn more about recent research and advancements in upright radiotherapy, to have hands-on time with one of Leo Cancer Care’s Upright systems, and to share future research plans.

This Alliance was built on a shared passion for innovation and a desire to improve accessibility and the radiotherapy experience for patients. This meeting laid the foundation for that, creating a space where these institutions could work together and support each other in a way that will drive this essential research forward and support the integration of upright photon treatment into mainstream radiotherapy.

Visualizing the future

The setting for this meeting was McLaren Hospitality House. This incredible building hosts functions in its conference center and the residential side provides a homely space for families to retire to after spending time with their loved ones in hospital, it has a sports room, an art room, games room, play room and quiet spaces for people to unwind after the stresses of hospital visits.

The McLaren Proton Center played a huge part in the success of this event. The McLaren team led by Dr Nazaryan, Executive Director of McLaren Proton Center, welcomed the Alliance members into the center to show them both their rotating gantry treatment rooms and also their fixed beam proton rooms, which includes the Leo Cancer Care upright patient positioning system and upright CT scanner. The Alliance members could see this technology in a clinical setting for the first time with Stephanie Angell, a Radiation Therapist at McLaren, demonstrating full movement of the upright CT ring and patient positioning system. Dr Nazaryan attended as a guest speaker and spoke passionately about McLaren’s journey through installation, room designs, and the exciting first steps they hope to take as they become fully clinical. He spoke of why they so fiercely advocate this technology and where they think it will make the biggest difference for them and their patients.

Dr Erik Engwall from Raysearch Laboratories presented on computer planning for upright treatment, talking about their early work, the challenges that planning for upright treatment can bring and how they have overcome these. Luke Federspiel from CQ Medical hosted a workshop in the McLaren upright treatment room on immobilization and followed this up with a talk focusing on the evolution of the immobilization they have developed specifically for upright treatment as well as how current standard supine immobilization equipment can be adapted and used successfully with the patient in an upright orientation.

Planning for the future

Sophie Boisbouvier attended this Upright Photon Alliance event as a representative for Centre Léon Bérard. She delivered a talk on the work that they have already done into upright patient positioning and gave her unique and invaluable perspective as a radiotherapy therapist on the practicalities of setting patients up in this system. She also shared some of her plans for her current PhD research.

Dr Niek Schreuder continued the exploration of research and invited each Alliance institution to present their research plans with this session inviting a lot of open discussion and debate.

On the second day of this event Alliance members were invited to attend a more informal hands on session over at the McLaren Proton Centre using the upright positioning system exploring further immobilization and room design and getting more familiar with the technology that will very soon be taking up residence in their own facilities.

This event was a great success. It brought the Alliance together and allowed them to see a path forward, where they each prepare for installation of this technology and delve deeper into research. Working together to strength the case for upright radiotherapy.

Continue to follow us on social media as we share exciting updates from each of our founding members of the Upright Photon Alliance.