Japan develops auto-guiding radiotherapy device

Japanese researchers have developed an auto-guiding radiotherapy device that has fewer side effects for lung cancer patients.

Kyoto University says it spent tens of millions of dollars to develop the new device in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and other firms.

Conventional radiotherapy tends to have side effects for lung cancer patients. The lungs move during breathing, which makes it difficult to pinpoint cancer cells. The radiation attacks not only cancerous cells, but healthy ones as well. This increases the risk of developing radiation-caused pneumonia.

With the new equipment, cancerous tissue can be pinpointed automatically and side effects can be sharply reduced.
Kyoto University says it began using the world's first auto-guiding radiation device earlier this month. It says it can be applied to liver, pancreatic or other cancers whose position can change as the patient breathes in and out.

Professor Masahiro Hiraoka of Kyoto University Hospital says the new equipment can be used to fight cancer tissue in parts of the body that would be difficult to treat with conventional radiotherapy.