NOMOS Corp. to Commercialize Lawrence Livermore's PEREGRINE Technology for Cancer Treatments.

LIVERMORE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--July 22, 1999--

The Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has selected NOMOS Corporation to commercialize PEREGRINE, an improved system for targeting tumors during radiation treatment of cancer patients.

The PEREGRINE dose calculation system accurately predicts radiation doses to tumors during radiation therapy planning. Current dose calculation methods approximate the radiation dose distribution in the patient based on dose distributions in water.

With the much refined PEREGRINE calculations, doctors can improve the design of their treatment to concentrate curative radiation doses on tumors, with less damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The licensing of PEREGRINE by NOMOS Corp. will be unveiled during the annual conference of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine that starts Sunday in Nashville, Tenn. "PEREGRINE is another example of swords being converted into plowshares as Livermore's four decades of nuclear weapons research into radiation physics will be used to provide improved treatment for people with cancer," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.

Anil Rastogi, president and chief executive officer of NOMOS Corp. said, "PEREGRINE represents decades of nuclear weapons research into radiation physics that will now be used to set a 'gold standard' of radiation calculation allowing physicians and clinicians to pinpoint the target more accurately, plan the dose prescription and deliver higher cancer-killing doses of radiation that could improve patient outcome."

Livermore Director Bruce Tarter pointed out that a key reason why PEREGRINE was developed at the Laboratory was because of its ability to draw together multi-disciplinary teams of researchers such as physicists, engineers and computer scientists.

PEREGRINE relies on a mathematical technique called Monte Carlo to track radiation. By simulating the trillions of radiation particles that enter the body and tracking their path, PEREGRINE accurately models the radiation dose absorbed in the patient.

PEREGRINE employs the information from CT scans to tailor radiation dose calculations for each patient, based on the individual's anatomy and disease.

The medical physics community has long recognized the value of a Monte Carlo-based radiation dose prediction system. However, until recently, these calculations could not be performed quickly enough to meet the needs of physicians.

"It used to be that Monte Carlo dose calculations would take days on a supercomputer to produce an accurate result," said Ralph Patterson, PEREGRINE program manager at Livermore. "However, with PEREGRINE, results are available in minutes using computer components commonly found in desktop PCs." The National Cancer Institute recently introduced a pilot study to compare PEREGRINE calculations to conventional treatment planning calculations.