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Lawrence Livermore Lab Pioneers Advanced Radiation Treatment for Cancer



Lawrence Livermore Lab Pioneers Advanced Radiation Treatment for 
Cancer; NOMOS Corp. Receives Food & Drug Administration Clearance for 
New Technology
  
LIVERMORE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 2000--Mankind will soon 
have another weapon in the 4,000-year fight against cancer. Clearance 
has been granted by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for an 
advanced method for targeting tumors with radiation treatment 
developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory. 

Dubbed Peregrine -- after the patron saint of cancer patients -- the 
technology could eventually save thousands of lives each year by 
helping doctors direct more radiation at tumors, with minimal damage 
to surrounding healthy tissue. 

NOMOS Corporation, a leading supplier of radiation treatment 
technologies located in Sewickley, PA recently received U.S. Food & 
Drug Administration clearance to produce and market Peregrine systems 
to the medical community. 

Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson made the announcement today at 
NOMOS headquarters. "Peregrine could change the way cancer is treated 
in America," said Secreuary Richardson. "This technology was 
developed through advances resulting from nuclear weapons research 
and with the multidisciplinary scientific expertise of a Department 
of Energy national laboratory. This is an excellent example of 
turning swords into plowshares." 

Peregrine has been under development at Lawrence Livermore since 
1994, in collaboration with researchers at the University of 
California, San Francisco and other academic institutions. 

More Radiation Where It's Needed 

Peregrine is a computer-based system for calculating, in three 
dimensions, where radiation goes in the body, and how much of it is 
striking tissue, bone or empty cavities. Peregrine will allow doctors 
to more accurately target tumors with radiation, permitting 
physicians to increase the dose needed to destroy tumors without 
increasing damage to healthy surrounding tissue. 

Each year, more than 100,000 cancer patients who are treated with 
radiation in hopes of a cure die with active tumors at the primary 
cancer site. Improved dose calculations using Peregrine could help 
doctors more effectively attack such tumors. 

"Peregrine will touch lives," said Christine Hartmann Siantar, the 
Livermore Lab's principal Peregrine researcher. "It is a breakthrough 
technology that can be used in treatment clinics everywhere." 

John A. Friede, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of 
NOMOS Corporation, said, "The combined efforts of the NOMOS and LLNL 
Peregrine teams to compile the data necessary to obtain FDA clearance 
has been extraordinary." 

"We can now offer this unparalleled technology to doctors and 
clinicians who can provide 'better medicine' for cancer patients, 
underscoring our commitment to improving the treatment of cancer as 
well as the lives of cancer patients throughout the world." 

Monte Carlo Improves The Odds 

Peregrine combines Livermore's almost 50 years of radiation physics 
expertise with advanced computer architectures to produce a system 
that determines radiation dose information in minutes. 

Peregrine relies on a mathematical technique called Monte Carlo to 
track radiation. It simulates the trillions of radiation particles 
that enter the body during treatment and accurately predicts 
radiation dose. Peregrine uses individual patient CT scans to tailor 
precise radiation dose calculations for each patient, based on each 
patient's distinct anatomy and disease. 

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco worked 
closely with Livermore scientists during development and validation 
of Peregrine. 

"Our collaboration convinced us that this program will be able to 
accurately predict dose distributions for the most complex intensity 
modulated radiotherapy plans," said Lynn Verhey, Ph.D., professor and 
Vice-Chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, UCSF. 

"The Peregrine program will allow us to use the system clinically to 
plan and deliver these radiotherapy plans with greater confidence." 

Multi-Disciplinary Capability Produced Peregrine 

Making Peregrine a reality required the expertise of Livermore 
researchers from a number of disciplines, including physicists, 
computer scientists and electrical engineers. 

"We're extremely pleased to be able to advance science in an area of 
great human significance," said Jeff Wadsworth, Livermore's deputy 
director for Science and Technology. "That's what Lawrence Livermore 
is all about." 

NOMOS' initial deployment of Peregrine will be incorporated into its 
own inverse treatment planning system, called CORVUS, and will be 
showcased at the upcoming meeting of the American Society for 
Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) scheduled to be held in 
Boston, October 22-26. A stand-alone version of Peregrine will 
subsequently be developed to work with other treatment planning 
systems, making jts unmatched capability and accuracy available to 
every cancer patient. 

City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles will be one of the first 
organizations to use Peregrine. "We are excited that we will be able 
to offer our patients the latest in radiation therapy technology," 
said Jeffrey Wong, M.D., Chair, Division of Radiation Oncology, City 
of Hope.

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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