Avion Medical Skin Centres Opens the First Medical Facility in Victoria Offering Rhenium-SCT to Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer Patients

Avion Medical Skin Centres (AMSC) today officially opened the doors to Victoria’s first medical facility to offer the novel, non-invasive^1,2 Rhenium-Skin Cancer Therapy® to non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) patients.

AMSC has partnered with Munich-based medical device and radiochemical company OncoBeta® GmbH to provide its Rhenium-SCT treatment. OncoBeta CEO and Managing Director Shannon D. Brown III travelled to Australia to officially open the medical facility housed within the brand-new world-class Melbourne Theranostic Innovation Centre (MTIC) in North Melbourne.

Standard treatments for NMSCs typically involves surgery, which carries a risk of scarring or loss of function.⁶ Treatment with Rhenium-SCT employs a non-invasive^1,2 superficial application of a paste containing ß-emitting particles directly to the lesion, which eliminates cancer cells and is painless,*^1,3 requiring only a single treatment session^1-5 in most cases.

*No reported pain^1,3
†Complete tumour regression in 98.5% of lesions treated⁴

Avion Medical Skin Centres founder Dr Sam Vohra says, “We are very proud to be opening this new treatment centre in the heart of Melbourne’s oncology precinct and offering this ground-breaking treatment to NMSC patients in Australia.”^1-3,6

The founder of MTIC, Professor Rod Hicks, is a pioneer of therapeutic nuclear medicine and will be the treating physician at Avion Medical Skin Centres.

“OncoBeta has developed a treatment that provides a high-precision application of radiation only to the skin cancer, without damaging surrounding healthy skin and without the risk of potentially disfiguring surgery, which can sometimes be required,”^1-3,6 says Professor Hicks. “For NMSC patients – especially those with difficult localisations on the face – Rhenium-SCT is a much friendlier alternative that was not previously available.”

OncoBeta’s Shannon D. Brown III says that the company is focused on the global roll-out of Rhenium-SCT, with Australia – which has the highest incidence of NMSCs in the world – a high-priority location. Rhenium-SCT is widely used in other countries internationally.

“We are extremely excited about our partnership with Avion Medical Skin Centres and to see the Rhenium-SCT being applied to Australian patients to improve their treatment outcomes. We are also looking forward to supporting physicians involved in the diagnosis and treatment of NMSCs.”

Avion Medical Skin Centres is now open for bookings and will start treating patients with Rhenium-SCT in September.

For more information about Avion Medical Skin Centres please visit www.avionmedicalskin.com.au or for more information about OncoBeta and Rhenium-SCT please visit: www.oncobeta.com.

Forward-looking statements

This announcement includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of Avion Medical’s control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning Avion Medical’s plans, objectives, goals, future events, performance and/or other information that is not historical information. All such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. Avion Medical undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made, except as required by law.

References:

1. Sedda AF, et al. Clin Exper Dermatol. 2008;33:745–749.
2. Cipriani C, et al. Epidermal Radionuclide Therapy – Dermatological High-Dose-Rate. Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinoma. In: Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine, editor Baum RP; New York: Springer, 2014.
3. Cipriani C, et al. Personalized irradiation therapy for NMSC by rhenium-188 skin cancer therapy: a long-term retrospective study. J Dermatolog Treat. 2020:1-7. doi: 10.1080/09546634.2020.1793890.
4. Castellucci P, et al. High dose brachytherapy with non sealed 188Re (rhenium) resin in patients with non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs): single center preliminary results. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021;48(5):1511-1521. doi: 10.1007/s00259-020-05088-z.
5. Cipriani C, et al. Personalized high-dose-rate brachytherapy with non-sealed rhenium-188 in non-melanoma skin cancer. Int J Nucl Med. 2017;114–112.
6. Cancer Council Australia. https://www.cancer.org.au/cancer-information/types-of-cancer/non-melanoma-skin-cancer(accessed July 2022).