According to the Global Cancer Observatory, there were 4,285,033 new cancer cases recorded in China in 2018. However, with only 2 proton therapy centers in clinical operation in Mainland China, there is a large cohort of patients without access to this cutting-edge technology.
Proton therapy is a superior form of radiation therapy that can reduce the risk of unnecessary radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue and organs at risk. Many types of cancer can benefit from proton therapy, such as lung, breast, and prostate cancer. Pediatric patients with cancers in the brain and central nervous system can significantly benefit from this powerful treatment option.
"This shipment to China, the first of many, is part of Mevion's mission to provide this life-saving technology to as many patients as possible," said Tina Yu, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Mevion Medical Systems. "We are proud to achieve this milestone and open the door to affordable and innovative proton therapy to underserved patients in China."
Single-room proton therapy systems, the dominant global system of choice in recent years, enable more cancer centers in large cities and rural areas the ability to offer this advanced cancer treatment to their patients. With the first shipment from Mevion, China embarks on a new era of single-room proton therapy.
The enormous expenditures and space requirements needed by other single-room or multi-room proton technologies have been a notable impediment to proton therapy adoption worldwide. Mevion changed proton therapy by creating the first and smallest single-room proton therapy system that can be embedded directly into a radiation oncology department and scaled to add additional treatment rooms with the growth of patient volume. This efficient approach will allow cancer centers to share existing resources, give patients access to a collection of cancer-fighting therapies under one roof, and ensures new protons centers’ financial success in the expanding Chinese market.
Today, new proton therapy centers in the United States are almost exclusively compact single-room systems. As the first company to innovate this approach, Mevion has over 50% market share of compact single-room systems in the U.S. and has been the preferred compact room provider of NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. To date, over 5,000 patients have been treated on Mevion proton therapy systems.
About Mevion Medical Systems
Since 2004, Mevion Medical Systems has been the leading provider of compact proton therapy systems for cancer care. Dedicated to advancing the design and accessibility of proton therapy worldwide, Mevion was the first company to innovate this new single-room platform and continues to further the science and application of proton therapy. Mevion’s flagship product, the MEVION S250i Proton Therapy System with HYPERSCAN pencil beam scanning, is the world’s smallest proton therapy system that eliminates the obstacles of size, complexity, and cost that exists with other proton therapy systems. Mevion is headquartered in Littleton, Massachusetts, with a presence in Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.mevion.com.
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