New Imaging Collaboration Could Improve Treatment and Quality of Life of Prostate Cancer Patients

A development agreement between a large medical imaging vendor and smaller medical device company promises to help promote a unique minimally invasive treatment that can ablate the prostate gland.

The agreement will give the device developer access to a large installed base of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems, and customers. The new system can perform minimally invasive, whole gland ablation of the prostate gland in a single session with fewer side effects, and increased quality of life for patients, compared to existing treatments.

The agreement, between Royal Philips (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), and Profound Medical (Toronto, ON, Canada) will help Profound Medical continue to develop its proprietary Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation (TULSA) technology. The TULSA system is designed to work on Philips’ Ingenia and Achieva 3T MRI systems.

The agreement will help Philips continue to expand in the interventional oncology market, using real-time (MRI) 3-D visualization of soft tissue, and industry-leading MRI guided procedure solutions.

Steve Plymale, CEO, of Profound Medical, said, “Philips has stepped forward and enthusiastically shares our vision for the technology. With their support, TULSA-PRO will soon be available to clinicians and patients for primary treatment of localized prostate cancer. This new relationship will provide us with access to a large installed base of MRI systems and customers and we look forward to developing this mutually rewarding relationship further.”

Profound Medical is aiming to obtain the Conformité Européenne (CE) marking and market the TULSA-PRO system in 2016 in Europe and in Canada.

Related Links:
Philips Healthcare
Profound Medical