Approximately 50% of patients diagnosed with cancer will receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment. To help target the radiation during treatment, the provider (e.g., medical physicist, dosimetrist, radiation oncologist) will use a bolus—a flexible device that conforms to the patient’s skin. Off-the-shelf boluses can often leave gaps between the device and the patient’s anatomy, which can result in insufficient dosing and may also expose adjacent anatomy to undesired radiation.
To address this issue, 3D Systems has debuted on the radiation oncology market with FDA 510(k) clearance of VSP® Bolus, a solution designed to deliver patient-specific radiotherapy treatment accessories.
The new solution completes its VSP portfolio of personalized medical devices. When combined with additive manufacturing, it will enable the company to deliver 3D-printed, biocompatible patient-specific boluses that can improve therapy modulation as well as patient comfort.
The VSP® Bolus functions as a plug-and-play solution since it is a full design and production service based on the patient’s treatment plan. This means, radiotherapy providers do not need specialized design software and expertise.
With VSP Bolus, 3D Systems can design and deliver boluses that conform to a wide range of anatomies. The process begins with the patient’s imaging data and input from the radiotherapy professional. Using this information, VSP Bolus is designed at the requested material thickness to optimize the radiotherapy targeting. With these capabilities built into the solution, radiotherapy professionals are freed from the time-consuming task of creating the design and fabricating the accessory themselves. Once designed, 3D Systems’ engineers employ the company’s additive manufacturing solutions to produce a high-quality bolus from a soft material that contours to the patient’s anatomy, enabling more efficacious treatment and a more comfortable experience, a press communication reads.
“Our new VSP Bolus product expands our capabilities to address yet another incredibly important application for personalized healthcare,” said Menno Ellis, executive vice president, healthcare solutions, 3D Systems. “While radiotherapy has become recognized as a common course of treatment for cancer diagnoses, each case is as unique as each patient. Blending the experience of our biomedical engineers, our biocompatible materials, 3D printing technology, and best-in-class digital workflows, we are able to both design and produce patient-specific devices to help improve the delivery of radiotherapy treatment.”
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