Resonant Medical to display the next generation of software for its Clarity System

Resonant Medical, an innovator in 3D soft tissue planning, image-guidance and adaptive radiotherapy products, headquartered in Montreal, Canada, today announced that the Company is exhibiting the next generation of software for its Clarity System at the 51^st annual American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting taking place November 1-5, 2009 in Chicago.

Resonant Medical will also be hosting a special cocktail session on November 2^nd with the theme of “Breast Conservation Therapy: Present and Future.” The event will include a panel discussion with three leading experts in the area of breast conservation therapy: Dr. Alphonse Taghian, PhD. of Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Ruth Heimann, PhD. of University of Vermont Cancer Center and Dr. Martin Keisch of the University of Miami Hospital. Panelists will discuss breast conservation therapy options, including current methodologies and future treatment trends.

In addition, Resonant is proud to note that four medical institutions currently using the Clarity System will be presenting abstracts at this year’s ASTRO. The abstracts describe evaluations of:

• The use of Clarity in breast IGRT; (Two abstracts; University of Vermont in Burlington & McGill University in Montreal, Canada)
• The use of several IGRT methods on prostate patients, including Clarity, cone beam CT and implanted markers; (Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan)
• The use of Clarity to provide planning and IGRT for prostate patients with hip prostheses. (Concord Hospital, Payson Center for Cancer Care, New Hampshire)

The Clarity System is a radiation-free, non-invasive gentle approach to imaging soft tissue that provides the benefits of automatic hybrid imaging during planning, anatomy-based daily treatment guidance and adaptive radiotherapy. The Clarity System allows physicians to visualize the soft tissue target anatomy during each step of the patient flow from planning through treatment. During planning, the Clarity System offers a cost effective soft tissue hybrid imaging solution in the CT suite, allowing CT and 3D ultrasound images to be acquired at the same time with the patient in the same position. These hybrid images are automatically fused and made available to the physician for enhanced target definition. During treatment, Clarity image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) uses rapid daily auto-segmentation of anatomy to visualize and adjust to daily 3D structural changes, thus ensuring precise and accurate daily delivery of radiation to the intended target and sparing of healthy surrounding tissue.

“One of the key challenges in delivering precise conformal treatment to soft tissue cancer targets is correctly visualizing the entire tumor volume at the planning stage and then tracking and correcting changes during therapy,” said Dr. Joseph P. Imperato, radiation oncologist and medical director of radiation oncology at Lake Forest Hospital, a Chicago-area clinic. “The fusion of CT and 3D ultrasound with the Clarity System enables precise localization of the target during planning, as well as daily image guidance and adaptive radiotherapy during treatment delivery, to ensure that the target is encompassed by the prescribed dose and to minimize side effects due to poor geometric localization.”

This latest generation of the Clarity System takes important steps in enabling adaptive radiotherapy by allowing physicians to define thresholds on allowable changes in a target structure’s shape, size and daily location. The physician can use the daily Clarity structural information to adapt the patient’s treatment plan as necessary at any point throughout the course of treatment. Clarity opens the door to adaptive radiotherapy and addresses a serious challenge that physicians have faced in delivering radiation therapy to patients.

“We are excited to unveil the next generation of the Clarity System at ASTRO, which provides physicians with the first and only method of automatic hybrid imaging and adaptive radiotherapy during each step of the patient’s treatment from planning through radiation delivery,” said Tony Falco, founder and CEO of Resonant Medical. “Building on existing clinical research on the use of the Clarity System, the studies presented at this meeting further support the need for visualizing the exact shape, size and location of the cancer to improve radiation treatment accuracy and overall patient care.”