Elekta

1. Can You Tell Us About The Personalization Of Cancer Care For Radiation Therapy?

Radiation therapy (RT) is a crucial treatment option for many types of cancer, including lung, breast, cervical, and prostate cancers. Personalized cancer care in RT involves tailoring treatment plans to individual patients. This customization considers factors such as tumor location, size, and patient anatomy. Advanced techniques like intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) allow precise targeting of tumors while minimizing damage to healthy tissues. By integrating patient-specific data and cutting-edge technology, personalized RT aims to optimize outcomes and enhance patients’ quality of life during treatment.

2. What Is The Market Trend For Personalization In The Asia Pacific & Japan Region?

As personalized medicine gains prominence globally, it’s reasonable to expect that the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, will continue to adopt personalized strategies in RT to enhance patient outcomes. Despite the economic diversity in the healthcare systems across these regions, there is a strong willingness to invest in personalization without compromising staff productivity. Enabling this requires AI-driven workflows and value-added services that augment staffing and boost productivity.

The market is shifting towards personalized therapeutics, leveraging software and device connectivity powered by AI technologies and immunotherapies. Elekta’s investment focuses on differentiated technologies such as adaptive RT and software-based workflow improvements. Proposed changes to the reimbursement model could speed up the adoption of treatments that improve outcomes at lower costs, such as hypofractionation and the integration of AI-based software, enhancing the efficiency of RT treatments.

“The market is shifting towards personalized therapeutics, leveraging software and device connectivity powered by AI technologies and immunotherapies”

Elekta’s recent innovation, the Elekta Evo AI-driven CT-Linac, can deliver both offline and online adaptive RT to address the various patient conditions on the day of the treatment. This highly versatile CT-Linac will enable clinicians to choose the most suitable RT technique for each patient. Additionally, Elekta Unity, which uses magnetic resonance radiation therapy (MRgRT), supports ultimate treatment outcomes through personalization. Elekta also provides comprehensive radiotherapy solutions dedicated to personalization, including Leksell Gamma Knife for stereotactic radiosurgery to treat brain tumors with submillimeter accuracy and brachytherapy for various cervical, prostate, tongue, breast, and skin cancers. These solutions are driven by the Elekta software solution to enable personalization with productivity and versatility.

3. What Do You Think Are The Keys To Success For Personalization In Radiotherapy?

We see four keys to success for personalizing RT:

• Technology adoption and education – Physicians’ knowledge of and belief in RT technologies will be crucial to its success. They need to stay abreast of cutting-edge technologies, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), and other adaptive therapies. Peerto-peer education exchanges are inspiring physicians to embrace RT technology and utilize it for effective treatment.

• Data-driven decision-making – By leveraging patient data, including genomics, imaging, and clinical history, we will be able to better tailor treatments. AI-driven algorithms can optimize dose delivery and predict outcomes.

• Government support – Endorsement from governments and decision-makers is essential for regulating, subsidizing, and supporting new technologies when introduced into the region. By leveraging the expertise of RT professionals and fostering collaborations, we aim to enhance capabilities and improve access to cancer treatment, ultimately benefiting patients across the Asia Pacific & Japan region sustainably.

• Patient engagement – Personalization also means educating patients about their treatment options, potential side effects, and long-term outcomes. Informed patients actively participate in decision-making. For example, Elekta’s Kaiku Health app serves as a patient companion throughout their cancer treatment, enabling patients to report symptoms directly to their care team.

4. How Is Elekta Addressing Sustainability?

Sustainability is a key focus area in cancer care, particularly because radiotherapy devices have a longer lifespan, unlike other medical equipment, with the lifecycle of a linac extending beyond ten years. Elekta has initiated two major sustainability initiatives to address this. Firstly, our CT-Linacs achieve energy savings of up to 50 percent compared to other industry-standard CT-Linacs, as per recent studies. Secondly, our predictive care technology, IntelliMax, uses AI-driven remote maintenance software to guarantee 98 percent uptime. This ensures that RT centers experience minimal downtime, allowing them to concentrate on providing optimal patient care with peace of mind, supported by our certified and dedicated field service engineers.

Elekta also follows the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol for carbon accounting, calculating emissions from direct sources like fuel use and gaseous fuel for heating. Indirect emissions arise from purchased energy (electricity and district heating). Additionally, Elekta addresses other indirect emissions related to its value chain.

5. What’s The Outlook For The Asia Pacific & Japan Market Regarding The Future Of Cancer Care?

Populations in the Asia Pacific and Japan region are experiencing rising rates of cancer incidence, driving our commitment to a world where everyone has access to the best cancer care. The challenge is evident in countries like Indonesia, which has less than one radiotherapy unit per million inhabitants, compared to the WHO’s recommendation of seven units per million. In contrast, Japan has around ten units per million citizens, making it a highly diverse market.

As part of our strategy, we are expanding the number of RT systems across the region. We believe that by increasing the availability of RT systems, we can reach a larger population in need and positively impact cancer care outcomes. To achieve this, we are actively fostering partnerships and collaborations with healthcare institutions, government bodies, and industry stakeholders, leveraging the diversity of the Asia-Pacific region.

Together with governments, NGOs, the IAEA, and other partners, we will continue to collaborate with radiotherapy professionals to build hope for everyone dealing with cancer.