Saudi Medical Devices Authority Approves Proton Therapy System

The Saudi Arabian Food and Drug Administration (Saudi FDA) has authorized the first proton therapy system, intended for cancer treatment, for marketing in the country.

Similar systems are installed at the Scripps Proton Therapy Center (San Diego, CA, USA), the Rinecker Proton Therapy Center (Munich, Germany, and the Paul Scherrer Institute (Villingen, Switzerland), and installation is planned at another 13 sites worldwide. The success of proton therapy treatments is rapidly enabling a transition of the therapy out of research facilities into regional treatment centers worldwide, together with increasingly sophisticated imaging delivery, and scanning techniques.

The ProBeam proton therapy system was developed by Varian Medical Systems (Palo Alto, CA, USA), a leading manufacturer of cancer treatment hardware and software. Proton therapy enables certain cancers to be treated earlier, more precisely, and with potentially less side effects than other methods by reducing the risk of damaging healthy tissues. Proton therapy is suitable for many types of cancers such as tumors in the spinal cord, brain, lung, breast, prostate, lymphoma, head and neck, bone and soft tissue, gynecologic carcinoma, cancers of the eye, and other cancers located close to radiosensitive tissues. Proton therapy is especially useful for use with pediatric patients, and can reduce the risk of young patients developing new, radiation-induced cancers later in life.

Moataz Karmalawy, GM, Varian Medical Systems, Particle Therapy business, said, "We are pleased to have the opportunity to make life-saving proton therapy treatments available to cancer patients in this region."

Related Links:
Varian
Saudi Arabian FDA