Kawasaki, Japan—Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (hereinafter “Toshiba ESS”) announced today that Toshiba ESS and B dot Medical Inc. (head office: Edogawa-ku, Tokyo; president and CEO: Takuji Furukawa; hereinafter “B dot Medical”), a joint research partner of Toshiba ESS, conducted a beam test for an irradiation device for a proton therapy system at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University, and confirmed that it can irradiate a proton beam from a setup angle to a single point. With this confirmation, Toshiba ESS has made great progress for the realization of a new compact irradiation system for particle therapy^* systems.

A rotating gantry, which is a part of the particle therapy system, is a device with a high degree of freedom that allows irradiation from any direction at any angle (360°).  However, it has been difficult to make the device smaller, because the rotating gantry rotates with electromagnets mounted on it that can transport and control high-energy particle beams.

Against this background, Toshiba ESS has been continuously working on reducing the size of heavy ion therapy systems by applying superconducting technology. In order to further downsize the superconducting rotating gantry developed by Toshiba ESS, Toshiba ESS has collaborated with B dot Medical since 2019 to develop more compact irradiation systems for particle therapy systems. As a result, Toshiba ESS and B dot Medical have produced an irradiation system that can irradiate particle beams from various angles to a single point using superconducting technology, without the need for a mechanism to rotate the electromagnets.

The application of the newly developed technology will make it possible to further downsize the heavy ion therapy system, which has been condensed using superconducting technology. This will significantly reduce amount of structural concrete and potentially the size of buildings required for the installation of heavy ion therapy equipment and the cost of the system.

Toshiba ESS will continue to advance high-quality cancer treatment through aggressive technological development.

B dot Medical Inc. is a QST/NIRS startup company which has advanced technology and know-how developed and accumulated through the development of a particle therapy system at NIRS. We have developed an “ultra-compact proton therapy system” that defies common wisdom regarding cancer treatment.

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