Siemens Medical Solutions has acquired the Radiation Therapy Business of MRC Systems GmbH in Heidelberg, Germany. With this acquisition, Siemens Oncology Care Systems has strengthened its competitive position in the oncology market, and will enable cancer treatment facilities worldwide to access MRC technology.

MRC was established in 1995 as a spin-off of the University of Heidelberg and the DKFZ (German Cancer Research Center) Heidelberg, one of Siemens' leading scientific collaborators. The MRC radiation therapy technologies -- including KonRad Radiation Treatment Planning (RTP) software and ModuLeaf Multileaf Collimation (MLC) technology -- were designed to assist clinicians to better streamline the clinical workflow process and improve the quality of patient treatments.

"We see these technologies as key elements to enhance our Oncology Workflow Solutions portfolio of offerings," said Hermann Requardt, executive vice president of Siemens Medical Solutions. "KonRad will become an integral part of our Coherence Workspace for dosimetry and treatment planning. The DKFZ has been an important partner of Siemens Medical Solutions, and this acquisition will strengthen our collaboration with this world-renowned cancer center."

Prof. Wolfgang Schlegel, head of the division of medical physics at the DKFZ and co-founder of MRC, went on to say, "DKFZ was a pioneer in developing Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), and multileaf collimator technology. Siemens and DKFZ have a strong relationship of working together in various collaboration projects, which makes Siemens the ideal partner for DKFZ."

With a worldwide installed base of more than 100 systems, the KonRad planning software has 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is available for sale in the United States. Also, the MLC technologies are commercially available in the United States.