People's Daily health client reporter Zhao Weide
"The general development trend of radiotherapy is more precise, has been developing in this direction, the future with the popularity of artificial intelligence, etc., the direction of radiation therapy must be digital, intelligent, precise, so that more tumor patients benefit." Professor Wang Junjie, chairman of the Radiation Oncology Treatment Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and director of the Department of Radiation Therapy of the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical College, introduced it.
On March 14, Professor Wang Junjie, Chairman of the Radiation Oncology Treatment Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and Director of the Department of Radiation Therapy of the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical College, Professor Li Baosheng, President of the Radiation Oncology Treatment Physician Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and Vice President of Shandong Provincial Cancer Hospital, Professor Xie Congying, Vice President of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University and Member of the Standing Committee of the Tumor Radiation Protection Committee of the China Anti-Cancer Association, and Mr. Wang Lixin, General Manager of Bohai Industry Fund, visited the People's Daily Health Client 2022 "Health Policy of the Two Sessions" tumor radiation therapy session. Focus on radiotherapy technology changes and innovations.
The trend of radiotherapy technology is precision, digitalization and intelligence
"Tumor is actually a disease of old age, with the aging of the population, the incidence of tumors in the mainland is also on the rise, in the past it was mainly surgical resection; the second is chemotherapy, through intravenous injection of drugs to kill cancer cells; the third is radiotherapy, divided into external radiation and internal radiation two categories." Professor Wang Junjie introduced that the treatment of tumors has three major means of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, of which the external beam of radiotherapy is to mechanically put the radiation into the tumor site, that is, the "target area", and the target should be accurate; internal irradiation is to insert into the tumor through interventional means or catheters to carry out targeted removal.
"In recent years, tumor radiotherapy technology in mainland China has shown a vigorous development trend, and the overall development trend is more precise. Conventional radiotherapy, stereoscopic radiotherapy and image guidance technology and other means make the clinical error only about 1 mm, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, the future development of radiotherapy will also achieve intelligence. Professor Wang Junjie said.
In addition to technological innovation, some high-tech radiotherapy equipment has also taken root in China. As one of the most advanced radiotherapy technologies in the world, proton therapy technology has brought many blessings to patients. Professor Li Baosheng introduced, "Generally, we apply photonic technology in the clinic, such as gamma knife, accelerator, etc., protons are more intelligent than photons, and research and development is becoming more and more miniaturized." At present, the installation and commissioning of the technical equipment in Shandong Provincial Cancer Hospital is very smooth, and it is expected to complete the clinical research in May this year. ”
"In the era of multidisciplinary joint treatment, tumor treatment has long been not a single fight, but emphasizes multidisciplinary combination treatment. In this context, radiotherapy can be combined with systemic therapy--- chemotherapy, targeting, immunotherapy and other means, such as the combination of radiotherapy and immune drugs has a special distant effect, and the tumor lesions without irradiation can also appear to shrink, and the two treatment methods are combined to achieve the effect of 1+1>2. In addition, radiotherapy can also be combined with local treatment methods, including minimally invasive surgery, interventional therapy, etc., to play a good synergistic role. Professor Xie Congying said.
In view of the future development of the radiotherapy industry, Mr. Wang Lixin, general manager of Bohai Industrial Fund, believes that "radiotherapy is a physical technology, and has been pursuing the precision of physical technology and equipment. In recent years, digital technology and artificial intelligence in protein prediction, cell prediction, molecular prediction and gene prediction and other aspects are more active, the ultimate goal of the introduction of digital technology and artificial intelligence is to achieve digital empowerment, that is, to improve the accuracy of treatment, improve the quality of treatment, reduce costs, reduce the burden of treated patients, while making treatment easier to popularize and reach, this is the future trend we see in the industry. ”
How to achieve industrial breakthrough for the pain points of the radiotherapy industry?
The vigorous development of technology has brought many blessings to patients, but from a clinical point of view, some practical obstructions also exist objectively, including the lack of professional medical technicians, the systematization, standardization, and process of radiation oncology disciplines.
Professor Wang Junjie believes that radiotherapy technology has not really been popularized in clinical practice. "Radiotherapy has a history of 120 years, our country only established the Chinese Radiation Therapy Professional Committee in 1984, and the classification of disciplines needs to be adjusted in time; secondly, there are few radiation medicine majors in college medical schools, and in the context of the increase in tumor incidence and the patient population that needs to do tumor radiotherapy, the trained medical students cannot meet this gap and demand; then the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the Chinese Radiation Oncology Residency Committee and other associations undertake continuing education projects for clinicians, facing problems such as venues." Finally, the disciplinary evaluation system of tumor radiotherapy is not very clear. ”
"At present, these problems are more prominent in grass-roots hospitals, and talents cannot be retained, the second is staffing, the ability and level of standardized diagnosis and treatment need to be improved urgently, and it is necessary to give full play to the national regulatory training system and establish a standardized diagnosis and treatment mechanism based on the MDT multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment model." Professor Li Baosheng said.
Professor Xie Congying said that first of all, practitioner training, professional setting and development are actually the most critical, and the current gap in radiotherapy practitioners in mainland China is huge; secondly, the radiotherapy industry relies heavily on radiotherapy equipment, but the current radiotherapy equipment is far from meeting the needs of clinical treatment.
According to the statistics of the National Cancer Center, there are about 7.5 million existing tumor patients in China, and the current number of radiotherapy equipment per million population in the mainland is 1.5 units, which is still quite different from the 2 to 4 standards proposed by the WHO. The number of radiotherapy devices for millions of people in the United States and France is 12 and 7, respectively. If China's radiotherapy equipment is to meet the WHO's recommended standards, the number of units will reach 2800-4200 units, and the gap with the current 2021 units is: 779 to 2179 units.
From the perspective of the development of the market industry, there have been more development and progress in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, and smart medical care. Wang Lixin believes that as a capital party, capital should empower technology, technology should empower the industry, and ultimately achieve the effect of improving service quality and then reducing service costs. "The first is to empower technology through investment, especially focusing on the development of startups in digital technology and smart medical care; the second is to establish an updated patient charging model for artificial intelligence platforms; the third is to improve the legal and regulatory model for patient data privacy."
