A robot to prepare chemotherapies arrived in 2020 at the Montpellier Cancer Institute (ICM), in Hérault. Due to Covid and the time needed to configure this first platform from the Italian company Steriline, which usually markets machines for the industrial world, it was inaugurated in the summer of 2024. “The configuration, both physical and software, requires the help of Steriline”recalls pharmacist César Lefebvre.
With this installation, the Italian company competes with the Canadian ARxIUM and its Riva robot. “The advantages of the Steriline robot are that it is fully autonomous once loading is done, that it is more technical and faster than the others due to its two arms and that it can recover the end of the vials to make preparations »César Lefebvre list. But its installation takes a long time, because this prototype is the first from the Steriline company.
Battery life of 45 minutes
The robotic platform takes the form of a huge metal and glass cabinet, high from floor to ceiling and filling the corner of a room with a controlled atmosphere. “The room needed to be redonesays César Lefebvre. We took the opportunity to build an intermediate door, which has since been sealed, in order to install the robot.” The ground must be strong enough to accommodate it. To operate, this massive installation also requires significant electrical capacity and a backup generator.
The pallet truck on which the preparer positions the equipment necessary for the robot to produce the anti-cancer drugs. © Como Sittler
The picker must fill a cart, which takes the form of a large metal box with different drawers on a pallet truck, with all the necessary equipment. Then, he positions this cart on a side of the robot designed for this purpose. The robot then has an autonomy of approximately 45 minutes. Time to make all the preparations.
Two robotic arms, visible through the two glass sides of the platform, work on the preparations in the enclosure, sterilized every 15 days. Bags, syringes, needles and products are successively caught. Fast and precise, the robotic arms can make bags and diffusers – preparations brought back to patients but difficult for preparers to carry out. All steps are controlled gravimetrically to ensure that the correct doses of product are taken. For the preparation in progress during the visit, the robot has also adjusted the quantity taken after weighing its contents.
The metal box in which the equipment necessary for the preparations is put. © Como Sittler
Once the bags are finished, it is up to the preparer to unload the cart and scan the preparations. A summary of their composition is displayed on a screen of one. “The robot has an error rate of only 4%”underlines César Lefebvre. It’s better than a human. If the bags and diffusers are validated, the printing of the labels is started to ensure their traceability.
Prepare 40 to 50% of the bags the day before
Six chemotherapy molecules and four antibodies can currently be used by the robot to make the preparations. “If a new molecule is added or a new vial, we must go through Steriline”breathes César Lefebvre. Only the Italian company can in fact record new data in the software. This makes the use of the robotic platform more complex.
It is not the increase in the number of patients that pushes the ICM to equip itself with such a robot, but the fact that they stay longer. With 220 chemotherapies per day, the ICM wishes to semi-industrialize standard preparations. “The goal is to reach 40 or 50% of bags prepared the day before and stored”explains the pharmacist. For the moment the robot does around fifty per day, but the increase in speed must continue. The institute would like to launch preparations during the night. To do this, you must obtain agreement from the ARS and complete the final adjustments to the machine.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
