April marked the culmination of a nearly 20-year effort by some of our Duke Radiation Oncology faculty to bring a radiotherapy product to market.
The process started with John Kirkpatrick, MD, PhD, who was working as a chemical engineer in the oil industry. After attending medical school and training as a radiation oncologist, he applied his prior expertise to develop a water clear radiotherapy bolus material. In radiation therapy, a bolus is applied to alter the dose of radiation received. Most boluses are made from opaque material.
In 2006, Dr. Kirkpatrick collaborated with Duke biomedical engineering students to develop a prototype as part of a class project. The prototype and intellectual property were offered to Duke, but Duke declined to take the option.
In 2017, after development, product testing, patenting and FDA approval were completed, a characterization of the bolus material ("Characterization of Water-Clear Polymeric Gels for Use as Radiotherapy Bolus"; read the article) was published together with Justus Adamson, PhD; Debra Georgias, RT; and Fang-Fang Yin, MS, PhD, as co-authors.
In that same year, Drs. Adamson and Kirkpatrick formed a small company, Clearsight RT LLC, with the goal of bringing the product to market; first sales of the product in the United States took place in mid-2018. Over the next five years, interest grew from various centers. Researchers at Loyola University evaluated and published the bolus's radiological properties, and researchers at Dartmouth College utilized the bolus for measuring surface dose using Cherenkov imaging.
Last month, Cortex Manufacturing purchased the Clearsight Bolus product line with plans to expand into Europe and beyond.
Drs. Adamson and Kirkpatrick, who are remaining business partners, will be working with Cortex to make sure the transfer goes smoothly; they will also work with Cortex to develop a new product based on their recommendations and user feedback.