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RayStation is the first commercial treatment planning system in the world to support helium ion therapy. Heidelberg University Hospital's Ion Beam Therapy Center will become the first in Europe with helium, and first in the world with pencil-beam scanning (PBS) delivery. 

The leading oncology center in Heidelberg, Germany, bought licenses from RaySearch for helium PBS in March 2018 and intends to conduct a clinical study of 20-50 patients starting 2021 to demonstrate the effectiveness of helium ion therapy on cancer patients.

RayStation offers support for robust optimization and evaluation, dose tracking and everything else that is already supported for proton and carbon ion therapy. Physical dose calculation is performed using a pencil beam dose algorithm implemented on the graphic processing unit, and the relative biological effective dose is determined using either the local effect model or microdosimetric kinetics model.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Juergen Debus, chairman of the department of radiation oncology at Heidelberg and director of the national center of tumor diseases, says: "It will now be possible to integrate helium treatment planning into our precision radiotherapy program including modern photon and particle beams on the RayStation platform and seamlessly optimize the treatment for every patient." 

Johan Löf, founder and CEO, RaySearch, says: "Heidelberg has been an important clinical partner for RaySearch for several years, and it's exciting to enter clinic trials for helium ion therapy with the esteemed team in Germany. Collaboration on this level is the drive force of innovation within precision health care and a cornerstone of our approach to innovation."