GE Healthcare and Elekta announced that they have signed a global commercial collaboration agreement in the field of radiation oncology, enabling the two companies to provide hospitals a comprehensive offering across imaging and treatment for cancer patients requiring radiation therapy.
As hospitals increasingly seek flexible and interoperable simulation and guidance technology, GE Healthcare and Elekta aim to meet the major need for radiotherapy solutions across both developed and developing markets.
As many as 50–60 percent of all cancer patients require radiation therapy[1] which requires high quality imaging and sophisticated delivery equipment and software to precisely target tumors while sparing healthy tissue. Precision imaging is fundamental to determining the size, shape and characteristics of tumors and differentiating between healthy tissues. Delivering the most appropriate dose requires advanced patient positioning, motion management technologies and state-of-the-art techniques such as VMAT[2] or SBRT.[3] Combining GE Healthcare’s imaging solutions with Elekta’s radiation therapy solutions will result in an even more compelling offering for hospitals, and ultimately their patients.
“Access to radiation therapy is a significant challenge in several parts of the globe. We are pleased that this collaboration is a step in the right direction to make more comprehensive precision health solutions more readily available,” said Jan Makela, President & CEO Imaging, GE Healthcare. “Cancer care can only be improved if those in the field work together and this is one of several partnerships that we are pursuing, for the benefit of caregivers and patients, as we build out our Oncology offerings to help enable more precise care.”
Elekta CEO, Gustaf Salford, said: “We are driven by our hospitals and cancer centers’ preferences and their need for comprehensive solutions in effective, efficient and safe cancer care. Therefore, we’re excited about this collaboration with GE Healthcare. We have many mutual health care providers who see clear synergies and advantages with our respective, strong product portfolios. This will allow us to jointly promote solutions for each cancer center’s needs. Elekta strives to assure that hospitals and cancer centers can create seamless ecosystems that facilitate efficient end-to-end cancer care.”
GE Healthcare and Elekta will continue to offer their own solutions using standard interoperability and facilitate interfaces with any vendor’s systems.
The agreement is non-exclusive, meaning each party can continue to cooperate with other partners. Separately, both companies are eager to improve interoperability and streamline workflows in radiation oncology.
Source: GE Healthcare & Elekta
Reference:
[1] Atun et al, Expanding global access to radiotherapy, The Lancet Oncol 2015 Sep; 16(10): 1153-86 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26419354/
[2] Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy – a novel radiation therapy technique that delivers the radiation dose continuously as the treatment machine rotates
[3] Stereotactic body radiotherapy, which gives radiotherapy from many different angles around the body, with the beams meeting at the tumor. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/radiotherapy/external/types/stereotactic-body-radiotherapy-sbr
