Homegrown Proton System Breaks New Ground as 360-Degree Rotating Treatment Room Opens at Ruijin Hospital

On May 21, Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine officially announced the launch of clinical use of its 360-degree rotating proton treatment room. The room represents a major iterative upgrade built on China's first domestically developed proton therapy system: the gantry rotation angle has been increased from 180 degrees to 360 degrees, and the addition of cone-beam CT has shifted two-dimensional guidance to three-dimensional guidance, enabling a treatment mode in which the gantry moves while the couch stays still. This shortens patient treatment time by about 30 percent and increases the number of patients served by 30 percent.

Zhao Zhentang, chief scientist of the R&D team and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the team successfully broke through 12 core key technologies including high-inertia, high-precision gantry design, achieving 100 percent independent controllability from materials and core components to the control system. Since opening in July 2023, Ruijin's proton center has completed more than 1,300 proton radiotherapy cases covering over 50 tumor types, and has pioneered pediatric tumor proton therapy in Shanghai, having treated 62 children and adolescent patients.