Lumitron Technologies has announced that its accelerator technology has successfully generated electron beams to enable the development of a range of next-generation cancer treatments using electron FLASH radiotherapy.
The accelerator is part of Lumitron’s compact HyperVIEW EBCS (Extremely Bright Compton Source) x-ray technology.
HyperVIEW is designed to open up new possibilities for medical imaging, therapy, materials detection, and other uses in a variety of industries.
The US-based imaging technology developer has designed the HyperVIEW EBCS device to collide a beam of near-light-speed electrons with a laser beam to produce high-energy x-ray beams.
These beams will allow for medical imaging with 1,000 times better resolutions, 100 times lower dosages than standard x-rays, and faster imaging times than traditional MRI of soft tissues, Lumitron claimed.
HyperVIEW EBCS is said to be similar to the size of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or a computerised tomography (CT) scanner.
According to the imaging firm, the technology allows practitioners to image down to the cellular level at the point of care. It will enable the first-time use of phase contrast imaging outside synchrotron facilities.
Lumitron CTO and co-founder Chris Barty said: “Our accelerator has produced a train of 100 consecutive, high-charge and perfectly timed micro-bunches of electrons at 99.982% of the speed of light or an energy equivalent of 25 MeV, in ten billionths of a second.
“This ultrashort duration and high energy has the potential to dramatically reduce the side effects of conventional radiotherapy.”
The US-based firm has been awarded various US government research contracts relating to the development of the HyperVIEW EBCS x-ray source.
Additionally, Lumitron has inked an agreement with a commercial imaging group for the technology.
