A new consortium for the advancement of Proton Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy, ProtOnART, uniquely brings together researchers, clinicians, and industry. The members of the ProtOnART consortium are OncoRay in Dresden, Germany, and PARTICLE in Leuven, Belgium, both combining academic expertise with clinical experience in proton therapy, as well as industrial partners Ion Beam Applications (IBA), proton therapy system manufacturer from Belgium, and RaySearch Laboratories, provider of oncology software solutions from Sweden.

ProtOnART builds upon the partners’ long-standing research efforts and shared ambition that an online adaptive workflow has the potential to significantly increase the quality of cancer treatments by making better use of the conformal nature of proton radiation. Thereby, the healthy tissue-sparing dose distribution of protons will be secured along the treatment course by continuously adapting the treatment to anatomical changes or inter- and even intra-fractional motion.

The first goal for the consortium is to develop an efficient daily online adaptive proton therapy workflow demonstrated in clinical practice by the clinical partners. The end goal of ProtOnART is to develop near-real-time adaptive proton therapy, where plan adaptation is performed during or between the delivery of the proton fields and make it a clinical reality as well.

Johan Löf, founder and CEO, RaySearch, says: “Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) has been a focus area for RaySearch for more than 20 years, and it is rewarding to see that daily online ART for photon treatments finally is getting into clinical use. However, online ART may be even more important for proton therapy, which hopefully will be the next step for the community. To achieve this goal, it is pivotal that academic institutions, clinics, and vendors of treatment planning systems, oncology information systems, and proton delivery systems work closely together. With the ProtOnART consortium we have managed to assemble exactly these competences.“

Charles Kumps, Chief Innovation and Development Officer of IBA, says: “Online adaptation is an important step towards personalized treatments in proton therapy. Defining the right tools enabling clinicians to account for morphology changes in an efficient and effective manner is only possible thanks to joint learning between the clinics and industry. We are delighted to leverage synergies between IBA and RaySearch solutions to support the ProtOnART consortium.“

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