Swedish Med-tech Major C-RAD sets up India Experience Center for Precision Radiotherapy
FARIDABAD : Swedish med-tech company C-RAD, the global leader in surface guided radiation therapy (SGRT) solutions, has established its first-ever Experience Center in India at Faridabad in Delhi-NCR.
Set up as a joint project with its India partner Marrsis Disha, the facility will train and upskill clinical professionals in precision radiotherapy. It will offer first-hand experience of C-RAD’s SGRT technologies and hands-on opportunities to explore how these can impact outcomes in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. SGRT is a tattoo-free alternative for patients who require radiation therapy. The technology uses advanced 3D camera technology to track and monitor patient movements during set-up and treatment.
Said Tim Thurn, CEO, C-RAD: “We are very excited to inaugurate our first Experience Center in India. Education is an important pillar of our strategy and a commitment to the market. Our objective is to create awareness about the importance of accurate patient positioning in advanced radiation therapy. New treatment techniques offer huge potential to give access to state-of-the-art radiation therapy to a larger group of patients and improve the curative effect of treatment while reducing side-effects. SGRT technology has been proven in global markets. Now we – together with our partners Marrsis Disha – are bringing this state-of-the-art cancer treatment solution to India.”
Added Debabrata Bhowmick, Sales Director – India & South Asia, C-RAD: “SGRT technology has revolutionized cancer treatment through sub-millimeter accuracy in delivering radiation dose to patients, while protecting healthy tissue from unwanted exposure. The Indian market has a huge unmet demand for cancer care. By partnering with Indian and global experts to train healthcare professionals in using SGRT technology, we can support in elevating patient care. SGRT is on its way to becoming standard of care in advanced radiation therapy worldwide and opening of this Center is a significant step in that journey.”
He added: “The Experience Center provides an opportunity for healthcare professionals in radiotherapy space such as radiation therapists and physicists and radiation oncologists to experience C-RAD’s cutting-edge technology firsthand – both onsite and online. It will educate and train them by hosting workshops and Q&A sessions with clinical experts, the C-RAD team, and actual users. It will offer a platform to network and share experiences, thoughts, and ideas on SGRT technology.”
Said Rohan Mehtani, CEO, Marrsis Disha, who are C-RAD India partners and host for the Experience Centre: “With ever-increasing cancer population in India comes the burden of increased collateral damage to the adjoining healthy cells during radiotherapy treatment. The good news is that there is a way to reduce and eliminate this damage. Education and training are the best way to showcase better technologies available for precision treatment, keeping patient safety in mind. Collaborating with C-RAD as their educational partners, we want to use this Experience Centre as a platform to promote cutting-edge technologies like SGRT. There is a huge unmet demand of radiation therapy equipment in India and not every patient is able to get treatment in time. With SGRT technology increasing efficiency and precision of treatment, more patients can be treated with the radiation therapy equipment already available. It will certainly not be sufficient to close the gap, but it will help provide more patients with high-quality cancer treatment faster.”
The Experience Center is equipped with C-RAD Catalyst+ HD system with complete software suite, including modules for respiratory gating, patient setup and positioning, and motion monitoring. It demonstrates accurate patient setup prior to the treatment and continuous monitoring of patient during a treatment fraction. The technology provides accuracy and safety for the patient to support high precision treatment techniques as well as efficiency in a complex treatment workflow.
SGRT technology allows positioning cancer patients with very high accuracy in the treatment beam. It uses 3D cameras and sophisticated software that computes in real-time the deviation of the actual position versus the desired position of the patient and the tumor. Through integration with the linear accelerator, SGRT can turn on or off the treatment beam, depending on whether the patient is in the right position or moves out of it. SGRT tremendously increases safety and efficiency in advanced radiation therapy by protecting healthy tissue from exposure.
The C-RAD technology is marker-less, which translates into patient comfort. It is also dose-free, meaning that no additional dose that might potentially harm the patient is used for patient positioning. The technology was initially focused on breast cancer patients, but now is being used for majority of cancer patients – if not on all – that are receiving radiation therapy. SGRT is fast emerging worldwide from being a niche solution to mainstream standard of care in cancer treatment.