Radiotherapy patient positioning technology developer Qfix is launching a range of new products at this week's American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting in Boston.
The company is debuting a new line of patient positioning masks called Variable Perf. The masks are available for two of the company's low-temperature thermoplastic product lines, Aquaplast RT and Fibreplast, and are available in U-frame and S-frame designs. They have perforated struts that make them more rigid and lower-attenuating than traditional masks that are reinforced with solid strips.
Qfix is also launching a new line of breast treatment devices, Access Supine and Access Prone. The devices are designed to help providers treat both breast and lung patients comfortably, with an angulation ladder that enables patients to be treated at angles from 0° to 25°. Multiple indexing holes allow the entire device to be offset for even more treatment flexibility, according to the company.
Access Supine is available in standard carbon fiber, with grid panels designed to minimize attenuation, and an MR-compatible version that can also be used for treatment. Access Prone is CT and MR compatible, is easy to set up, indexes directly to the couch top, and is compatible with the company's CT Virtual Indexing technology to provide confirmation of patient alignment.
Access Supine and Access Prone are new members of Qfix's Access breast treatment device family, which includes the kVue Access 360 prone breast insert.
Finally, Qfix reported that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its SDX automatic gating module, which integrates respiratory gating with radiation therapy.
Previously, the company's SDX spirometric motion management system used the voluntary deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) technique to manage thoracic and abdominal tumor motion, which only permitted the treatment beam to be manually operated. With automatic gating, SDX now integrates respiratory gating with radiotherapy treatment on the Clinac and Trilogy platforms from Varian Medical Systems, in addition to proton therapy systems from IBA Molecular.
With the module, SDX users can automatically define beam-on and beam-off periods that are synchronized with a patient's voluntary breath-hold. Future developments will include expanding the automatic respiratory gating system to a variety of primary radiotherapy treatment systems, Qfix said.
