Profound Medical and Siemens to Conduct Clinical Trials

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Profound Medical Inc. (PMI) and Siemens Healthcare have announced plans to conduct a global, multi-site, human safety/feasibility clinical trial initiative involving early stage prostate cancer patients in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.

In making the announcement, PMI’s CEO Paul Chipperton observed, “We are developing a truly unique, minimally-invasive medical device for the treatment of prostate cancer, combining the already proven clinical efficacy of ultrasound thermal therapy with the unparalleled imaging capabilities of MRI.”  He had previously said that the new device has the potential to treat patients three to six times faster than existing options with greater accuracy and fewer side effects.

Chipperton noted that Siemens has a global reputation for excellence in research and development and has installed its Magnetom Tim MRI Systems in all of PMI’s target markets. These factors, he said, “made it a natural fit to interface the two companies’ technologies to provide improved speed, precision and accuracy in the treatment of prostate cancer.” According to Chipperton, the companies will each bring complementary expertise in terms of hardware, software and technical support to accelerate PMI’s clinical trials.

Previously, PMI had disclosed it would launch a pilot clinical trial at two U.S. hospitals in 2011. That study is expected to treat as many as 30 patients with early stage prostate cancer.

Access the FUS Foundation’s January 2011 newsletter report and video interview with Paul Chipperton >