Why Are We Rotating 100 Tonnes Around a 100kg Patient? With Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care
What if the future of cancer treatment meant moving the patient into position, rather than rotating an enormous machine around them?In this episode, we speak with Stephen Towe, CEO of Leo Cancer Care, about rethinking the way radiation therapy is delivered. Leo Cancer Care is developing upright radiation and proton therapy systems designed to change the traditional treatment-room setup, with potential benefits for patients, clinical teams and hospitals.Stephen shares the story behind a major milestone: the first patient ever treated sitting upright in a proton beam. For him, the moment was especially personal. The patient was a seven-year-old boy named Steven, the same age and name as Stephen’s own son. He also explains the journey to working with Stanford, the clinical validation behind the technology, and Leo’s vision for bringing imaging, treatment planning and radiation delivery together.Key TopicsWhy conventional radiation therapy has traditionally rotated large machines around patients, and the case for turning that model around.The first patient treated upright in a proton beam, and the personal significance of that milestone.Why proton therapy is particularly important for children, helping deliver radiation to a tumour while reducing exposure to healthy tissue.How Leo Cancer Care’s upright treatment approach is designed to offer physiological and clinical benefits.The partnership with Stanford, including the rigorous testing and validation of the technology.The role of patient experience, including Stanford’s Avatar product, which allows children to watch videos during treatment.Leo’s growing adoption, with 57 agreements around the world, and its work to reduce the cost, footprint and complexity of proton therapy.The partnership with GE Healthcare and the ambition to integrate imaging, planning and treatment in one room.Related InsightsA different way to deliver proton therapy: Upright positioning challenges the assumption that patients must lie down while large gantry systems rotate around them.Making advanced treatment more accessible: Leo has focused on reducing acquisition and implementation costs, as well as the physical footprint required for proton therapy.Clinical validation matters: The collaboration with Stanford involved extensive testing and measurement to establish confidence in the new treatment approach.The patient experience is part of the technology: The integration of video experiences for children reflects the importance of making treatment more comfortable.A more connected treatment pathway: Working with GE Healthcare, Leo is exploring how imaging, planning and treatment could be brought together, potentially reducing the time and complexity involved in conventional workflows.Core ChallengesRadiation therapy has evolved significantly, but the physical architecture of treatment has remained familiar: patients lie on a table while large machines rotate around them. Stephen challenges whether this is still the best way to approach treatment.The opportunity is not simply to change the patient's position. It is to rethink the entire treatment pathway. Today, imaging, planning and treatment can involve separate rooms, processes and waiting periods. Stephen discusses a future in which these steps could be brought together, potentially making treatment more efficient and reducing delays. He points to the NHS experience, where the typical time to first beam was discussed as around 67 days.But realising that vision brings important questions: How can a new treatment approach earn clinical confidence? How can advanced proton therapy become more accessible to hospitals and patients? And what could happen when imaging, planning and delivery are designed as one integrated process?Tune in now to hear Stephen Towne explain why Leo Cancer Care is challenging the traditional design of radiation therapy, and why it might be time to stop rotating 100 tonnes around a 100kg patient.