Breaking the monopoly of technology, this "human camera" allows doctors to see more subtle tumors|Novelty(26)

Cover News

2024-08-08 21:54Posted on the official account of Sichuan Cover News

Cover News Reporter Zhu Ning

In 2023, the China Nuclear Energy Industry Association released China's first "China Nuclear Technology Application Industry Development Report (2023)", which is expected to reach a trillion yuan in the mainland nuclear technology application market in 2025.

As an emerging discipline of modern medicine, nuclear medicine uses radionuclides to diagnose and treat diseases, which can comprehensively reflect the genetic, molecular, metabolic and functional status of lesions, gain early insight into the molecular level of diseases, and assist clinical research to overcome major diseases in neurology, oncology and cardiology.

Looking at the whole country, Chengdu has advantages in the field of nuclear technology application. Especially in terms of key medical "nuclides", more than 80% of the country's "nuclides" are "made in Sichuan". On the R&D side, Chengdu has become a new highland for the development of the national nuclear technology application industry. Focusing on R&D individuals, a few days ago, Chengdu Yongxin Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. independently developed a single-photon emission and X-ray computed tomography system - Insight four-dimensional quantitative SPECT/CT was officially released. It is understood. The device can realize the efficient acquisition and processing of photon signals, and can play an important role in the clinical diagnosis of tumors, the evaluation of cardiovascular and endocrine efficacy, follow-up and the study of the formation mechanism.

永新医疗Insight 四维定量SPECT/CT

Nuclear technology makes medical testing more accurate

Yttrium-90 for liver cancer, radium-223 for prostate cancer, and iodine-131 for thyroid disease...... The development of nuclear medicine is related to the life and health needs of the people.

In fact, nuclear medicine in mainland China started in the 50s of the 20th century. Before the advent of nuclear medicine imaging, it was difficult to pinpoint the location and size of the tumor masses hidden in the patient's body, and once the clinical manifestations were available, the staging of the tumor was often missed by the optimal early treatment.

Nowadays, doctors can use nuclear technology "human camera" to open up the microscopic world, gain insight into a variety of diseases, and can find lesions "earlier and earlier", especially accurately locate the primary lesion, and can stage the tumor very effectively, so as to achieve precise treatment under imaging guidance, and ultimately improve the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients.

How to see better? See more closely? See more accurately? As an outstanding representative of high-end nuclear medicine imaging equipment, SPECT/CT uses single-photon nuclear medicine as a tracer, which can non-invasively detect the uptake information of the tracer by organs or tissues in vitro, so as to reflect its physiological and pathological characteristics, combined with CT anatomical information, through image fusion technology, to achieve the "1+1>2" effect, providing strong support for clinical accurate diagnosis. At the same time, its clinical application can further enhance the diagnostic ability of tumors, ischemic heart disease, kidney diseases and other diseases in mainland China.

According to the annual report of China's cancer registry, the number of new cancer cases in China is about 4.064 million every year, and early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment are the key measures to reduce the mortality rate of malignant tumors and prolong the survival time.

It is understood that Insight four-dimensional quantitative SPECT/CT integrates high-throughput SPECT detector and 24-row high-performance CT, which can realize the efficient acquisition and processing of photon signals, effectively improve the sensitivity and image resolution of examinations, greatly shorten the scanning time, meet the needs of diversified clinical collection, and play an important role in the diagnosis of cardiovascular, endocrine, urinary, neurological, respiratory and other system-related diseases, especially in the clinical diagnosis, efficacy evaluation, follow-up and formation mechanism research of tumors.

Liu Mai, chairman of Yongxin Medical, said that this new domestic SPECT/CT product will contribute an important force to the development of China's nuclear medicine, help improve the diagnostic accuracy and treatment effect of diseases, and provide strong support for the equipment renewal and upgrading of medical institutions.

Blue ocean competition

Sichuan plans to build a leading nuclear medicine industry cluster in China

It should be pointed out that for a long time, due to the relatively late start of nuclear medicine in mainland China, some key components have not been able to completely get rid of their dependence on foreign technology, and the SPECT/CT market has been monopolized by international brands for a long time, and domestic medical institutions are facing high purchase and maintenance costs when purchasing equipment.

The reporter learned that the price of this type of imported equipment is mostly in millions or even tens of millions of yuan, in addition, if the imported equipment is broken a part, it will take several months from transportation to final installation, and there is a very high maintenance cost. At the same time, nuclear medicine molecular imaging equipment, which is a high-end imaging equipment of nuclear medicine, has been monopolized by foreign giants for a long time.

According to statistics, from 2017 to 2021, GE, Philips, and Siemens accounted for more than 95% United States of the nuclear medicine equipment market in China. At present, Yongxin Medical has obtained the Class III medical registration certificate of SPECT and SPECT/CT products, as the first set of equipment in China, the product fills the domestic gap, and the performance index is excellent, which is expected to break through the monopoly of the domestic market by imported brands.

It is worth noting that at present, relevant plans have been introduced at the national and local levels, and some industry insiders said that the nuclear medicine track is not crowded and has prospects, and it is a blue ocean market, and the enthusiasm of participants continues to rise.

In recent years, with the aging of the domestic population and the increase of cancer burden, the clinical demand for PET/CT has continued to rise, and the future market potential of nuclear medicine is huge. In 2021, the introduction of the blockbuster document "Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Medical Isotopes (2021-2035)" issued by eight national ministries and commissions will raise the development of nuclear medicine to the national strategic level.

As one of the most high-tech directions in the future medical field, Sichuan also has new actions on how to brave this "blue ocean". A few days ago, the Sichuan Provincial People's Government issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Nuclear Medical Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing that by 2027, Sichuan should realize the domestic and independent supply of more than 10 major medical isotopes, complete or enter clinical trials of more than 5 radiopharmaceuticals and high-end nuclear medical equipment, form a standard system of medical isotopes, radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear medical equipment, as well as a complete clinical transformation of nuclear medicine and a research and diagnosis and treatment system, and build a leading nuclear medical industry cluster in China.

Nuclear medicine

The problem of "scarcity is expensive" needs to be solved

However, behind the boom in nuclear medicine, there are still significant difficulties. Some industry insiders said that it is necessary for all links of the industrial chain to form a joint force, build an ecosystem, and jointly do large-scale in order to bring down the price. "In terms of application, it is necessary to promote the full coverage of nuclear medicine departments in tertiary general hospitals by the end of 2025, expand the clinical application scope of some nuclear drugs, and achieve early diagnosis and early treatment."

In addition, Wang Jing, chairman-elect of the Nuclear Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and director of the Nuclear Medicine Department of Xijing Hospital affiliated to the Air Force Military Medical University, pointed out that the first is the lack of standards for discipline construction. "In fact, the nuclear medicine department has its own characteristics, including patient management and process, radiopharmaceutical management and process, and staff management process, etc., because it is a radioactive working environment, but in terms of construction standards, there is still a lack of a standard construction specification or enforceable standard at the national level, so that many scientific research institutes that want to build nuclear medicine have no model reference."

"The uneven distribution of medical resources is a big problem, although nuclear medicine equipment is a high-tech product, but in some economically underdeveloped areas, there may be a lack of sufficient talent and technical support, resulting in the equipment can not be fully utilized." Some people in the industry pointed out that secondly, due to the large investment in nuclear medicine equipment, the input cost of nuclear medicine equipment is also a difficult problem to solve in some small hospitals or clinics.

People in the industry said that in the process of the development of nuclear medicine, there are also problems in the current period, such as insufficient publicity and popularization of the value of nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment, and little public knowledge. At the same time, the research and development and promotion of nuclear medicine technology also need more financial and policy support, and it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with the government, enterprises and all sectors of society.

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