Jan Lindström joins Micropos Medical Board: ”Almost unethical not to offer these options to more patients”
Former chief physicist Jan Lindström has worked with radiation since 1988. He is now a new board member of Micropos Medical AB - an undertaking that stems from a strong commitment to patient welfare and the conviction that prostate cancer patients must get access to the best available treatment methods. After reviewing a large number of scientific studies, he argues that it is unethical for healthcare not to apply Augmented SBRT with the Raypilot® System in the treatment of prostate cancer.
Micropos Medical’s product Raypilot System was unknown to Jan Lindström until the autumn of 2024. But once he became aware of the system, his interest grew quickly.
“A technology that reduces side‑effects and, in combination with the right radiation, constitutes a fully adequate treatment - why isn’t it used? It was incomprehensible to me, and I had to find out more.”
Analysed scientific studies: clear results
So Jan Lindström started digging. With the patient perspective as the starting point, he analysed all relevant scientific articles concerning different treatment methods for localised prostate cancer. In particular, he compared surgical treatment, conventional radiation, and augmented radiation therapy (Augmented SBRT, ASBRT*) in combination with the Raypilot System, focusing on treatment outcomes, side‑effects and patients’ quality of life after treatment.
Jan Lindström emphasises that he scrutinised the studies including the Raypilot System with a critical eye.
“I needed to convince myself that this actually works, so I played the devil’s advocate, dug deep into the dossiers and asked the tough questions. And I found answers to all of them. The only negative that emerged was that the catheter can be perceived as a little uncomfortable, but this is a discomfort patients readily accept considering all the other benefits,” says Jan Lindström, and continues:
“When I compiled the available facts, it became very clear that the Raypilot System contributes to substantially reduced side‑effects and that ASBRT in combination with the Raypilot System is the best option for the patient. It all comes down to the precision the system provides.”
Unethical and needlessly expensive
Most prostate cancerpatients are offered a choice between radiotherapy and surgery. The methods are equivalent in terms of curing the cancer but differ in their impact on patients’ quality of life. Research** shows that surgical treatment of prostate cancer causes significantly higher rates of side effects, such as loss of sexual function and incontinence, than radiotherapy, particularly modern forms of radiotherapy with motion‑tracking technology such as the Raypilot System. Despite this, around 70 percent of all prostate cancer cases in Europe today are treated with surgery.
“The more I’ve learned about ASBRT and the Raypilot System, the more important it feels to help increase awareness and adoption. I believe it is almost unethical that these opportunities are not offered to more patients. Moreover, they make healthcare more efficient, so this is not a matter of cost. If anything, it’s the opposite.”
No side‑effects
As a board member, Jan Lindström wants to encourage Micropos Medical to be a bit bolder.
“There are sufficient studies and facts to be confident this works. Now it needs to reach university hospitals and larger care providers. And I think we can move from talking about reduced side‑effects with the Raypilot System to no side‑effects – when performed correctly this is fully achievable, which is already being demonstrated in practice.”
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Jan Lindström, born 1959, is a licensed hospital physicist (1988), former chief physicist at Karolinska University Hospital and a hospital physicist specialising in optimisation in radiology. Now affiliated with research at Karolinska Institutet and active in his own company working with quality control and measurement of medical devices for radiation.
Member of the Board of Micropos Medical since spring 2025.
*ASBRT, Augmented SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy): With SBRT the patient is treated on five or fewer occasions over as many days, with a substantially larger dose at each session compared with traditional radiotherapy, which involves 20 or more treatment sessions. ASBRT includes the leading motion‑monitoring technologies and methods for the best possible radiotherapy of prostate cancer, with a focus on treatment outcomes and patients’ quality of life. The higher radiation dose imposes increased demands on precision during treatment to avoid damage to healthy tissue, including the urethra and rectum. The few monitoring technologies that are sufficiently good for ASBRT are Raypilot System, MR‑Linac and, to some extent, CyberKnife.
The Raypilot® System is an electromagnetic positioning system used during radiotherapy which, with high real‑time precision, shows the movement of the prostate in 3D. With the Raypilot System, the accuracy of radiotherapy increases, as do efficiency and patient safety. The system radically reduces the risk of side‑effects. In addition to ensuring highly accurate targeting throughout treatment and thereby reducing the risk of damage to healthy tissue, the system makes it possible to determine the prostate’s position without harmful X‑ray radiation.
** Radical Prostatectomy Versus Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Clinically Localised Prostate Cancer: Results of the PACE-A Randomised Trial, Nicholas van As et al, European Urology, 2024
For further information, please contact:
Thomas Lindström,
Managing Director, Micropos Medical AB
tel: +46 76 140 72 29
mail: thomas.lindstrom@micropos.se
Micropos Medical AB is a Swedish medical device company that develops, manufactures, and sells technology enabling enhanced radiotherapy cancer treatment. The company's product, the Raypilot® System, generates high precision as well as high efficiency through real-time tumour tracking in radiation treatment of prostate cancer. Using The Raypilot System, clinics can treat their patients with accuracy and reduced risk of damaging healthy tissue surrounding the tumour. The company is listed on Spotlight Stock Market. www.micropos.se
