Icon Group and Varian partner on cutting edge artificial intelligence cancer program

MedTech News: Icon Group and Varian (a Siemens Healthineers company) have partnered to conduct cutting-edge research to advance the future of radiation oncology and reduce the global cancer burden.

Through the five-year research and professional services agreement, Icon will participate in clinical and technical research programs, product evaluation projects, and clinical consultations with Varian to offer clinical expertise and industry perspectives throughout product development.

Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Icon is one of the largest cancer care network providers in Asia Pacific, with over 2.5 million patient interactions annually. The strategic partnership enables business leaders across Varian, Siemens Healthineers, and Icon to collaborate on new learnings and techniques in radiation therapy to advance patient-centric solutions and accelerate the development of market-ready products.

Icon Group CEO, Mark Middleton, said “We are proud to have a long-standing global relationship with Varian who share the same mission and patient-centric approach to cancer care. Through this five-year partnership, we look forward to once again supporting Varian’s world-class team in developing products and services that have the potential to efficiently deliver more advanced care to even more patients in more regions across the world.”

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President of Radiation Oncology Solutions at Varian, Kevin O’Reilly, added “Timely care is critical to improving outcomes for patients, and this partnership with Icon builds on our efforts to reduce the time that elapses between a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Together with Icon, we can evaluate how new products can integrate into existing systems and continuously improve our technology services –, all with a focus on enhancing the patient experience.”

Building on the agreement in 2021 to install Varian linear accelerators across Icon’s global network, Varian and Icon will conduct clinical and technical research evaluating the hardware and software systems involved in diagnostics, treatment planning, and radiation therapy for cancer patients. This research will also be published and used to advance broader industry-wide education efforts, including training programs to support healthcare providers and the field of radiation oncology.

The first project between the two organisations will focus on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in contouring to reduce the time it takes to plan radiation therapy treatments. Contouring involves outlining the tumour and nearby organs to deliver precise radiation therapy to the tumour site and avoid healthy tissue. AI contouring enables high quality Organs at Risk (OAR) contouring and standardisation with AI-powered algorithms. This is designed to help simplify the radiation therapy planning workflow.

The program of work will be a multidisciplinary collaboration between Varian teams and Icon’s global teams, lead by the Strategic Investment and Clinical Care teams and the group’s research division.