Video showcases progress on LIGHT system process

RNS Number : 4505J

Advanced Oncotherapy PLC

27 April 2022

 

Reach non-regulatory announcement

27 April 2022

ADVANCED ONCOTHERAPY PLC

("Advanced Oncotherapy" or the "Company")

Launch of a video showcasing progress on LIGHT system process

Advanced Oncotherapy (AIM:AVO), the developer of LIGHT, the next-generation proton therapy system for cancer treatment, today announces the launch of a video showcasing progress on the LIGHT system infrastructure and set-up at its assembly and integration site located in Daresbury, Cheshire.

As outlined in the operational update released by the Company on 26 April 2022, it has made good progress along its timescale of summer 2022 for having a fully operational LIGHT system operating at 230 MeV.

· Finalised building rooms for the infrastructure required to accommodate the LIGHT machine and its ancillary equipment, which have more than 34,000 components.

· The LIGHT machine assembly is on track. To date, 20 of the 21 accelerating modules needed to accelerate protons to an energy of 230 MeV have been radio-frequency (RF) conditioned and the control systems are in place.

· Patient treatment will take place in the treatment room which is located at the end of the accelerator where a state-of-the-art robot chair, with CT scanner and X-Ray panels for accurate patient positioning, has been installed.

The video launched today , and which is available on the Company's website , showcases the various complex elements at play in the integration of the Company's LIGHT system:

Further details on the specificities of the machine, its control systems and the patient treatment facility, which are highlighted in the video, are detailed below:

· The accelerator, currently under assembly, is powered by:

o  13 klystrons, which provide high radio-frequency power to the machine to accelerate the proton beam, operating at 3 GHz, inducing an electromagnetic field inside the LIGHT accelerating modules that is oscillating at a frequency of three billion times per second.

o  Four inductive output tubes (IOTs), operating at 750 MHz which generate the relevant power for the radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ).

· The accelerator is cooled, kept under vacuum and monitored by beam diagnostics and the Company's time-of-flight energy measurement algorithm.

· The proprietary LIGHT Accelerator Control System integrates more than 300 different devices and is driven by operators in the control room:

o  The Company and its partners have developed c.250 front end control software instances to accelerate, steer and monitor the proton beam.

o  The measuring systems calculate the speed of protons in picosecond, the time it takes light to travel one third of a millimetre.

o  20 Gb of nominal data is transferred per day to support the beam optimisation and control.

· Protons go through a gallery of accelerators moving as a 200 Hz pulsed beam through the RFQ, the SCDTLs and then through the 15 CCLs accelerating up to a maximum of 230 MeV.

o  These accelerating structures have been aligned and pre-aligned, requiring fine adjustment devices to position components such as the Permanent Magnet Quadrupoles, which are used to focus the proton beam, to a position accuracy of 50 μm, the average diameter of human hair being 75 μm.

· LIGHT is the first proton therapy system integrated with a dedicated vertical CT scanner. The diagnostic CT scanner, which weighs over 2,000 kg and can be moved with sub-millimetre accuracy, has been mounted vertically to aid patient comfort during treatment.

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Advanced Oncotherapy plc	www.avoplc.com
Dr. Michael Sinclair, Executive Chairman	Tel: [phone]
Nicolas Serandour, CEO
Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker)
Nick Athanas / Liz Kirchner (Corporate Finance) Amrit Nahal / Matt Butlin (Sales and Corporate Broking)	Tel: [phone]
SI Capital Ltd (Joint Broker)
Nick Emerson	Tel: [phone]
Jon Levinson	Tel: [phone]
FTI Consulting (Financial PR & IR)	[e-mail]
Simon Conway / Rob Winder	Tel: [phone]

Notes

· Inductive output tubes (IOT)   - IOTs are high power radio-frequency generators used to bring the relevant power to the RFQ.

· Radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) - The RFQ is a copper accelerating structure which focuses, bunches and accelerates protons up to 5MeV. The RFQ sits between the proton source and the side-coupled drift tube linacs.

· Side-coupled drift tube linacs (SCDTLs) - The LIGHT accelerator includes four SCDTL modules which accelerate protons from 5MeV to 37.5MeV. The SCDTLs sit between the RFQ and the CCLs.

· Coupled cavity linacs (CCLs) - The CCL structures or "higher speed accelerators" are an essential part of the LIGHT Accelerator. They consist of a series of "cells" which accelerate the protons from 37.5MeV to energies that can be applied usefully to a clinical setting (70MeV to 230MeV).

· Klystrons - The Klystrons provide high radio-frequency power to the machine to accelerate the proton beam.

· Permanent magnet quadrupoles (PMQs) - The PMQs are used to focus and align the proton beam. They are placed along the LIGHT accelerator within the SCDTLs and CCLs (in between acceleration tanks) and also in the medium energy beam transfer line.

· RF conditioning - The radio-frequency (RF) conditioning involves gradually increasing the input power until there is an electrical "breakdown". After each breakdown, the accelerating modules can sustain an increase in the input power. This process is continued and iterative until the power reached is 20% above the nominal values. This ensures great stability when operating at nominal power. As the Daresbury LIGHT system is expected to be the first linear proton accelerator to be commissioned for medical use, the RF conditioning is unprecedented, hence carrying some level of uncertainty with regards to the time needed to complete this important task. This risk has been significantly removed following recent progress.

About Advanced Oncotherapy Plc

Advanced Oncotherapy, a UK headquartered company with offices in London, Geneva, The Netherlands and in the USA, is a provider of particle therapy with protons that harnesses the best in modern technology. Advanced Oncotherapy's team "ADAM," based in Geneva, focuses on the development of a proprietary proton accelerator called, Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology (LIGHT). LIGHT's compact configuration delivers proton beams in a way that facilitates greater precision and electronic control.

Advanced Oncotherapy will offer healthcare providers affordable systems that will enable them to treat cancer with innovative technology as well as expected lower treatment-related side effects.

Advanced Oncotherapy continually monitors the market for any emerging improvements in delivering proton therapy and actively seeks working relationships with providers of these innovative technologies. Through these relationships, the Company will remain the prime provider of an innovative and cost-effective system for particle therapy with protons.

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