Cancer Treatment Breakthrough! Core Component of the Bay Area's First Integrated Proton and Heavy Ion Therapy System Successfully Installed

On May 28, 2024, one month before the official opening of HeYou Hospital, one of the key projects of Guangdong Province, the bending magnet, a core component of the first integrated proton and heavy ion therapy system in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, was successfully installed at HeYou Hospital in Shunde District, Foshan City. This marks a significant step forward for the region in the field of oncology treatment.

This cutting-edge oncology treatment equipment is expected to enter clinical trials in 2026. At that time, it will rapidly drive and enhance the level of precision oncology treatment in the Bay Area and the entire South China region, bringing hope for the lives and health of cancer patients.

At the installation site of the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center, the core component, a bending magnet measuring 4 meters in length and weighing 20 tons, was slowly lifted and precisely lowered through the installation opening on the roof of the Proton and Heavy Ion Center, aligning perfectly with the base. With the gradual placement of the core components, the complex and massive integrated proton and heavy ion therapy system began to take shape.

Core Component Installation Site

As a vital component of HeYou Hospital, the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center has a total budget exceeding RMB 2 billion. At the end of 2021, HeYou signed an equipment procurement agreement with Hitachi to introduce the first integrated proton and heavy ion therapy system in South China and the only one in the Greater Bay Area. This equipment can provide both heavy ion therapy based on carbon ion beams and proton beam therapy. It is one of the few systems globally equipped with a proton gantry and multi-angle heavy ion therapy. In terms of radiation types and treatment incidence angles, it represents a globally leading technological configuration for the foreseeable future, both now and for a considerable period after its completion.

Regarding construction progress, the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Project has passed environmental and occupational health assessments. In May 2023, the building structure of the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center was topped out. In January of this year, the installation of the integrated proton and heavy ion therapy system officially began. Equipment installation is scheduled to be completed within the year, with plans to finish equipment and beam commissioning by 2026, entering the clinical trial phase.

Lu Jiade, Vice President of HeYou Hospital and Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and Proton and Heavy Ion Center, stated that the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center is equipped with one proton treatment room with a 360° rotating gantry and two heavy ion treatment rooms with three different beam incidence angles, with one additional treatment room reserved for future technological upgrades. Proton and heavy ion therapy are internationally recognized as cutting-edge cancer radiotherapy modalities, offering advantages in precisely treating various solid tumors, particularly malignant tumors prevalent in Guangdong Province, such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma and lung cancer. This technology features shorter treatment courses, higher efficacy, and fewer side effects, potentially helping patients return to normal life more quickly.

On the day of the installation, the interior of the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center, where the integrated proton and heavy ion therapy system is being installed intensively, was unveiled to the media for the first time. According to reports, the entire system comprises tens of thousands of components, including the particle injector, low-energy beam transport, synchrotron, and high-energy beam transport line, with a total connection length of approximately 300 meters, requiring installation precision at the sub-millimeter level.

Lu Jiade explained that particle therapy requires accelerating charged particles to an energy level sufficient to reach the tumor site. Voltage is applied to the charged particles via the accelerator system to generate high-energy particle beams with a specific direction and velocity. The main accelerator of the synchrotron system uses a synchrotron to accelerate protons or carbon ions (heavy ions) on a circular track with a circumference of 57 meters, reaching speeds of millions of revolutions per second until they achieve the energy required for treatment.

When protons or carbon ions are accelerated by the synchrotron to approximately 70% of the speed of light, these ion beams are extracted and directed into the human body. Unlike conventional photon radiotherapy, the beam releases minimal energy before reaching the tumor site. However, upon reaching the lesion, the beam instantaneously releases a large amount of energy, creating an energy deposition trajectory known as the “Bragg Peak”. The entire treatment process is akin to a “precise stereotactic ablation” of the tumor, enabling powerful and precise irradiation of the tumor lesion while sparing normal tissues, thereby maximizing therapeutic efficacy.

HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center Plan

Due to stringent construction requirements, the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center project incorporated multiple technological innovations. According to Sang Caoyuan, Project Manager of the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center from the project contractor, China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, the shielding walls of the project are approximately 3 meters thick, with the thickest section reaching 4.7 meters. While typical building roof slabs are only about 10 centimeters thick, some walls and floor slabs in this project are thicker than a standard building floor, highlighting the immense construction difficulty. Before construction began, various challenges were addressed through the integration of new technologies such as visual modeling, robotics, and VR, ensuring high-quality construction.

Ding Dajun, Head of the Engineering and Infrastructure Department of HeYou International Hospital Group, explained that the proton and heavy ion therapy device imposes extremely high requirements on construction techniques. It is essential to ensure “zero” settlement (no building subsidence), “micro” vibration (minimizing environmental vibration during system operation), and “precise” embedding (controlling the tolerance of all embedded pipes and conduits to the millimeter level). At the end of January this year, the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center passed the equipment manufacturer's acceptance inspection, confirming that the building met all conditions for equipment installation.

HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Center

With the successful installation of the core component, the installation process for the integrated proton and heavy ion therapy system has taken a significant step forward. Upon completion, the HeYou Proton and Heavy Ion Project will benefit a large number of cancer patients, drive the rapid development of oncology treatment technology in the Greater Bay Area and even South China, further enhance Guangdong's clinical research and scientific capabilities in radiation oncology, and promote the overall improvement of medical standards and the development of related industries in the region.