Domestically-produced medical heavy-ion accelerators to benefit more Chinese patients: researcher

China's domestically-produced medical heavy-ion accelerator for cancer treatment will benefit more patients in the future, according to Yang Jiancheng, deputy director of the Institute of Modern Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

As a leading researcher in advanced heavy-ion radiotherapy in China, Yang was among the developers of China's first heavy ion-medical accelerator system installed in Wuwei City in northwest China's Gansu Province.

He said China's upgrade in heavy-ion accelerators is part of the innovation-driven growth of the country's medical device industry.

"Large-scale scientific facilities are not only critical national assets for exploring the frontiers of science. In fact, the series of innovative technologies generated and derived during the research and development process also serve as a powerful new engine for fostering new quality productive forces," Yang said.

Heavy-ion radiotherapy is currently recognized internationally as an advanced radiotherapy method.

Chinese researchers started to work on the employment of heavy ion in cancer treatment in 1993.

After nearly 30 years of progress, China put its first self-developed heavy-ion medical accelerator system in Wuwei into clinical application in March 2020, becoming the fourth country in the world capable of independently developing and using heavy-ion therapy systems.

More than a dozen heavy-ion medical accelerators have been set up across China to date, covering the cities of Huizhou, Lanzhou, Hangzhou and Putian, where they provide precise treatment services to 3,600 cancer patients.

Making the equipment more compact and lowering the price of treatment are the next stages in the roll-out of this advanced medical technology.

"My proposal this year will focus on how we can further promote, at various policy levels, the research and development of the large-scale scientific facilities and push them into a fast-track development phase. Taking medical treatment devices as an example, the issue we currently face is that while their therapeutic efficacy is excellent, compared to the huge gap in our country's demand for precision radiotherapy, we still need to accelerate the research and development, deploy more such facilities, improve their cost-effectiveness and make them accessible to the general public," Yang said.

Yang, who is also a political advisor who will be attending the upcoming plenary session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said he is making every effort to accelerate the advance of heavy-ion medical accelerators and make the treatment more affordable for patients.

He said new technologies, including artificial intelligence, 5G and robotics, will speed up the development of the heavy-ion accelerator, and favorable policies from the government will make treatment more widely available in China.