Royal Philips and Profound Medical, a Toronto-based medical device company, has announced that they have signed a joint development agreement to support Profound Medical's proprietary TULSA (Transurethral Ultrasound Ablation) technology designed to treat patients with prostate cancer on Philips' Ingenia and Achieva 3T MRI systems.

Profound's TULSA technology is emerging as a new minimally invasive, whole gland ablation of the prostate. This single session procedure has the potential for outcomes comparable to the best of current treatment options, but with lower rates of side effects and higher quality of life for patients.

"Philips has stepped forward and enthusiastically shares our vision for the technology. With their support, TULSA-PRO will soon be available to clinicians and patients for primary treatment of localized prostate cancer. This new relationship will provide us with access to a large installed base of MRI systems and customers and we look forward to developing this mutually rewarding relationship further," said Mr Steve Plymale, CEO, Profound Medical.

As a leader in image-guided therapies Philips is expanding its efforts in the fast growing interventional oncology domain. MRI is emerging in oncology applications, because of its excellent real-time 3D visualization of soft tissue and Philips has a suite of industry-leading solutions for MRI guided procedures. Philips has deep expertise and experience in providing clinical solutions for prostate MR imaging.

"With 3T MRI emerging as a technology standard for multi-parametric MRI diagnostic imaging of the prostate, our collaboration with Profound Medical will enable us to offer our customers access to a novel MR guided ultrasound ablation therapy that's critical to prostate care research," said Mr Christopher Busch, general manager MR Therapy, Philips Medical Systems. He added, "We look forward to teaming with Profound Medical to refine the integration of our technologies and drive clinical research and reimbursement efforts with the ultimate objective to improve clinical performance and enhance the patient experience."

Profound Medical will soon release 12 month data from its 30 patient safety and feasibility study with the goal of obtaining a CE mark and commercialization of TULSA-PRO in Europe and Canada in 2016.