In 2002, estimates from the World Health Organization put the number of cancer cases at over 22 million for that year. Approximately ten million new cases of cancer are being diagnosed worldwide each year - with 1.3 million of those from the U.S. alone. This upward trend is expected to increase steadily throughout the next decade and to reach an estimated total of 15 million new cases per year by 2020. Approximately 50% of cancer treatments dispensed today use radiotherapy.

Resonant Medical, a privately-owned medical device company based in Montreal, intends to play an important role in the innovative medical technology developments that are required to address the increased need for increasingly precise radiotherapy treatment of cancer in the decade to come and beyond.

Although radiotherapy treatment is making major inroads in the fight against cancer, totally clear and consistent definition of tumours is still on the wish list of cancer professionals.

Resonant Medical was founded in 2000 by four co-founders: Dr. Tony Falco, Frederic Francis, Luc Sirois, and Francois Perraton. Their goal was to revolutionize cancer treatment with an image guidance platform based on the innovative ideas of Dr. Falco, who was a medical physicist with the McGill University Health Centre.

RESTITU™, a 3D ultrasound image-guided radiotherapy product, was the result. With its unique imaging capabilities and ability to fuse different medical imaging modalities, RESTITU™ displays tumours with an unparalleled level of definition and ensures radiation correctly hits the targeted tumour each time.

RESTITU™ is the ultrasound (U/S) solution to the problem of poor soft-tissue visualization encountered on conventional CT scans, which are the mainstay of radiotherapy treatment planning at present, yielding higher definition contours. The accurate and higher definition of the target organ or a tumour’s volume is critical to the success of radiation therapy.

Other initiatives have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and contrasting agents to obtain higher definitions. However, MRI equipment is impractical for treatment planning purposes and contrast agents can be problematic. Alternatively, ultrasounds are readily accessible, user-friendly, and offer superior imaging capabilities.

Combining the imaging results of one modality, typically CT, with U/S, RESTITU™ yields significantly improved visibility of the targeted tumour. As a result, succeeding radiation treatment can better target the tumour, saving healthy tissue from radiation while focusing on the cancerous tissue.

RESTITU™ technology introduces several breakthroughs and integrates seamlessly with existing equipment. The interactive screen introduces unique zero-footprint ergonomics intended to facilitate the activities and movements of cancer professionals and patients alike.

RESTITU™ also introduces other improvements including 3D reconstructed images instead of the standard 2D views. The technology platform also allows monitoring of organ displacement over time and uses algorithms to determine the shifts in treatment beam trajectory to compensate for such organ movements between treatment fractions. This capability adds to the precision targeting capacity of the product.

A number of the functionalities required for RESTITU™ had never before been achieved. The platform includes the in-licensing of hundreds of patents and research results from universities around the world. Key partnerships with local Canadian high technologies were also pursued, leveraging local skills and industrial talents.