On November 15, China's first domestic proton therapy device, which has attracted much attention, finally successfully completed the first clinical trial of tumor patients after 7 years of construction. With this as a starting point, the Proton Center for Cancer of Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine will continue to carry out clinical trials of "localization" proton therapy for more than 40 patients from all over the country in the next three years. This marks that, following the opening of the "Shanghai Proton Heavy Ion Hospital" in 2015, Shanghai has added a fortress with the most advanced international cancer treatment technology. How did proton therapy, a high-tech technology mastered by only a few developed countries, achieve "localization" in Shanghai? After localization, what changes will occur in the treatment of tumor patients?
Mr. He, who walked out of the treatment room, looked relaxed and shook the doctor's hand to express his gratitude. After 12 sessions of proton radiotherapy, the pituitary tumor cancer cells in his skull were basically killed by proton-directed blasting. Looking back on the process of fighting the disease in the past 3 years, Mr. He sighed that it was very fortunate to be able to join the first clinical trial of the domestic proton device.
Patient Mr. He said, "Of course, I am the first patient to get the benefits, it is true that there are not many side effects in the process of treatment, basically there is no feeling in the treatment process, memory and physical strength, and the situation of not sleeping well at night has been greatly improved." ”
This "DVS map" verifies that Mr. Ho's "radiation therapy dose" is fully consistent with the "established planned dose". Each curve in the figure corresponds to a tissue, with the y-axis representing the irradiation dose and the x-axis representing the irradiation time. In Mr. He's DVS diagram, the red line representing the "pituitary tumor" has been steadily receiving the highest dose of radiation during the treatment; the rest of the lines representing the inner ear, optic nerve, brainstem and other tissues are placed in the dose safety zone below, indicating that the proton therapy device accurately hits the lesion while leaving more than 20 surrounding tissues almost unaffected.
Proton therapy is currently one of the most advanced means of treating cancer in the world, compared with other emerging radiotherapy such as tomography, gamma knife and beam knife, proton therapy has the advantages of ultra-precise control, less side effects and high therapeutic benefits.
In the 1960s, the United States became the first country in the world to apply proton beams to treat tumors. Since then, developed countries such as Japan and Germany have developed proton therapy industry. Although compared with these developed countries, China's proton therapy started late, but the development momentum after the start is very strong. In 2015, Shanghai Proton Heavy Ion Hospital was officially opened, using Siemens treatment equipment and introducing foreign experts.
In the same year, the Tumor Proton Center of Ruijin Hospital started construction. This important project, which is strategically cooperated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Health Commission", and the Shanghai Municipal Government, has a clear goal, that is, to promote the leapfrog development of domestic high-end medical equipment.
Academician Zhao Zhentang ,Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering), an expert in particle accelerators in China, is the director of the Shanghai Light Source Center. The project of Ruijin Proton Hospital was developed and built by the team of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences led by him.
Zhao Zhentang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and vice president of the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "16 years to install, 18 years to debug the completion, before we spent two or three years to do this kind of equipment prototype research and development, you see this is the high-frequency acceleration (proton) into a ball, then to this foot to kick fast, every time the electron to this will be kicked, there is an electric field acceleration." ”
Academician Zhao's team has more than 100 people involved in the project construction, according to recollection, in May 2017, the accelerator of Ruijin Proton Hospital achieved the drainage beam, and the construction of the treatment room was completed in October, which was very smooth during this period. The real challenge occurred after up to 3 years of repeated debugging and testing.
Chen Zhiling, head of the proton therapy system at the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "The standards for most medical devices do not take into account the situation of such a huge treatment device, so we have the whole process of testing." The safety and reliability of the complete set of testing methods//equipment based on international standards has been developed to the level of real medical equipment. ”
Ruijin Hospital plans to treat more than 40 clinical trial patients in the next six months. Equipment and physical systems will also face a new round of operational challenges. However, this local talent team, whose average age is less than 40 years old and has been born with domestic proton therapy devices, has fully equipped the ability to "repair their own equipment".
Zhang Manzhou, director of the Particle Beam Application Technology Department of the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "When the epidemic came, foreign manufacturers could not do operation and maintenance // So we called the first domestic proton therapy demonstration device, and what we wanted to do was to solve these things in China." ”
The localization of proton equipment is also conducive to the further reduction of proton therapy costs for domestic tumor patients. In the United States, the cost of treatment is equivalent to about 800,000 to 900,000 yuan; in neighboring Japan, the cost is equivalent to about 200,000 yuan. With the full roll-out of China's proton construction, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, more proton centers will be completed, the proportion of domestic equipment and local medical personnel will become higher and higher, and the cost of various operating costs will also decline, coupled with the coverage of innovative medical insurance such as "Shanghai Huibao", proton therapy costs will become more and more accessible.
Ning Guang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Ruijin Hospital, said: "Our current proton equipment should be said to be our first version on this basis, we will further make protons more miniaturized, more convenient and more diversified A very important goal is to hope that the cost of tumor treatment can be reduced, but the technology and standards and requirements of tumor treatment will definitely not decline." ”
(Look at the news Knows reporter: Zhou Wenyun Intern Editor: Zhang Yu)