Cancer radiation accuracy improved to millimeters at Shanghai center
The proton radiation accuracy of Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center has reached 3 millimeters, improving the effects of radiation treatment on cancer suffers, medical experts announced on Friday.
Their research into the application accuracy has been published in the international medical journal Frontiers in Oncology.
The center, which uses cutting-edge proton and heavy ion beams to target and kill cancerous tissue without harming healthy tissues and cells, is the first facility of its kind in China and only the third in the world.
Proton and heavy ion treatment is a high-end radiation technology which functions like a targeted explosion on cancerous cells. It protects the nearby healthy tissues as much as possible in order to improve the treatment effects while reducing side effects.
Ensuring the high-dosage radiation release hits the targeted cancerous position is extremely important for treatment results. A slight deviation from the target area could cause injury to nearby tissues. So the accuracy of the radiation should be limited to millimeter level, said medical experts.
A team led by the center's Cheng Jingyi collected data on 14 breast cancer patients receiving proton treatment at the center. This first such research in China found the application involved an error of only 3 millimeters.
Since opening in 2015, the center has treated 4,100 hospitalized patients and will soon carry out an accuracy evaluation on heavy ion radiation, it said.
It will collect more domestic experience data on high-end radiation treatment to benefit patients, the center said.
the published article
