10th Oct 2018 10:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Proton therapy treatment developer Advanced Oncotherapy PLC on Wednesday said it has achieved significantly improved performance from its LIGHT system.
Shares were 30% higher on Wednesday at a price of 43.00 pence each.
Advanced Oncotherapy has integrated at its testing facility at CERN, in Switzerland, all four sections of the LIGHT accelerator: the proton source, the radio-frequency quadrupole, the four side coupled drift tube linacs, and two high-energy accelerating structures.
The company has now accelerated the proton beam through the units at 52 mega-electric volts, double that achieved in its last update.
The plan now for Advanced Oncotherapy is to add the remaining 13 accelerated coupled cavity linacs to accelerate the beam to 230 MeV, required for the treatment of tumours.
Elsewhere, it said construction is going to plan at its 141/143 Harley Street site in London, and it hopes to complete work at London's first proton therapy treatment centre by mid-2019.
At Daresbury laboratory, where the firm is building a test facility for LIGHT, it is on track to install the system in November for testing in 2019.
Chief Executive Nicolas Serandour said: "We are delighted to have successfully achieved a further acceleration of the proton beam through the four sections of the LIGHT system and have accordingly validated the designs of the all the accelerating structures.
"Having fully integrated all key components of the LIGHT system, we have already achieved the most challenging aspect of constructing a new linear accelerator. Since the remaining high-speed accelerating modules are of the same design to those already successfully tested, the integration of these remaining CCLs is now a relatively simple process," he continued.
"We are therefore confident that the integration of further CCL modules will conform to our expectations. Discussions with potential customers are now multiplying and we expect them to accelerate as we are getting closer to the next phases of our journey."
Related Shares:
AVO.L