MHI Receives Order for "Vero4DRT" Radiation Therapy System For New Cutting-edge Medical Facility in Hiroshima Prefecture

The Hiroshima High-precision Radiotherapy Center is currently under construction in the redevelopment zone (Futabanosato) at the north entrance to the Japan Railway's (JR) Hiroshima Station, a project overseen by the prefectural government. The implementing body is the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association, and the Center will be jointly operated by seven entities: the Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association, Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture and four key hospitals, i.e. Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima Prefectural Hospital, Hiroshima City Hiroshima Citizens Hospital, and Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital. The facility is eagerly expected to serve the Hiroshima region as a cutting-edge medical center specializing in advanced radiotherapy.

The Vero4DRT system features a dynamic tracking function that tracks a respiratorily moving carcinomatous lesion in real time, enabling continuous irradiation of the targeted lesion with pinpoint accuracy. The system also incorporates Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), an innovative therapy method whereby dose intensity distribution at the irradiation target is modulated and irradiation is performed from multiple directions, enabling the formation of a high-dose area corresponding precisely to the complex shape of the carcinomatous lesion and reduction in the dose irradiated to healthy cells. In these ways the Vero4DRT is capable of providing today's most advanced high-precision radiotherapy corresponding perfectly to the conceptual aims behind creation of the new Center.

In developing the Vero4DRT system, MHI was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Marketing got under way in January 2008 following acquisition of pharmaceutical approval of the system. The Vero4DRT, which is manufactured at MHI's Hiroshima Machinery Works, adopts a new type of accelerating tube, the first in the world applied to medical use, jointly developed with the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and manufactured at the company's Mihara Machinery Works; it enables free machine movement by compactly containing the high-quality therapeutic radiation source. The unit is also equipped with a system that enables simple, convenient irradiation focusing. Together these innovative features enable swift and accurate radiotherapy while easing the burden on both the patient and the attending medical staff.

Today, as expectations are held for expanding adoption of effective cancer therapies that are gentle on patients, facilities that conduct radiotherapy - a therapy that eliminates the need for invasive surgery - are projected to increase. In order to respond, even in a small way, to these social needs, going forward MHI will work aggressively to expand sales of its highly innovative Vero4DRT system.