Asan Medical Center, which is preparing to introduce the state-of-the-art cancer treatment device "heavy ion therapy system," said on the 29th that it signed a business agreement with QST Hospital (National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology Hospital) in Japan to jointly conduct professional workforce training and clinical research.
QST Hospital is the first medical institution in the world to begin heavy ion therapy, in 1994. Heavy ion therapy treats cancer by firing carbon atoms at near the speed of light into a patient's cancer cells. Compared with conventional radiation therapy devices or proton therapy systems, it can target only the cancer cells with greater precision and higher intensity.
Asan Medical Center signed a contract in Apr. with the Toshiba ESS–DK Medical Solutions consortium in Japan and began full-fledged preparations with the goal of operating a heavy ion therapy system in 2031. Under this agreement, the two institutions will cooperate on workforce training in heavy ion therapy, patient exchange, and clinical research.
The heavy ion therapy facility will be built on the Asan Hospital campus in Pungnap-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, with a total floor area of 40,880 square meters (about 12,388 pyeong). It will consist of two rotating gantry treatment systems and one fixed-beam system, and is planned to be designed to enable precise, customized treatment by applying a computed tomography (CT)-based image-guided system that reflects changes in tumor size and location in real time.
The heavy ion therapy system to be introduced can be applied not only to prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and liver cancer but also to cancers such as lung cancer, sarcoma, and recurrent cancers that show resistance to existing treatments. By using various particles, including carbon ions, helium, neon, and oxygen, it can remove highly resistant tumors while minimizing damage to normal tissue.
Song Si-yeol, head of the heavy ion introduction task force at Asan Medical Center, said, "The experience of QST Hospital, which was the first in the world to introduce heavy ion therapy to clinical practice, will be a great help to Asan Hospital," adding, "We will work to expand treatment opportunities for patients with intractable cancers and create a patient-centered treatment environment."