Market Overview

The governmental measures such as the Cancer Control Act, the Urgent Radiotherapy Instrument Development Project, and the Basic Plan to Promote Cancer Control Programs have broadened the use of radiotherapy instruments and increased the cases of radiotherapy treatment especially in regional cancer treatment cooperation centers and university hospitals.

The mid-term report of the third-term Basic Plan for Cancer Control Programs by MHLW mentioned that, “it is appraised to see the increasing ratio of those regional cancer treatment cooperation centers that perform irradiation treatment for outpatients, stereotactic radiotherapy using linear accelerator, and IMRT (Intensity-Modulated Rdiation Terapy), and the ratio of those centers with a full-time radiotherapist”, which has led to forming of the fourth-term plan.

As one in two Japanese people is said to suffer from cancer, and one in three die from cancer, the awareness on radiotherapy for cancer has been on the rise. A wide variety of advanced radiotherapy such as IMRT, IGRT (Image-guided radiotherapy), and VMAT (Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy), particle or heavy particle therapy are selected by the patients.

Noteworthy Topics

Slow Replacement in Therapeutic Instruments at Radiotherapy Facilities

In association with the research, a mailed questionnaire was performed to 179 facilities nationwide that conduct radiotherapy treatment regarding the status of radiotherapy (number of patients, number of cases of the treatment, details of the treatment, etc.,) and the status of using treatment instruments (replacement, new or increased implementations, assessment, etc.)

When asked about the status of 143 radiotherapy instruments that had been kept on using since 2016 found out in the last research (January to February 2020), 17.5% (25 units) were replaced, 13.3% (19 units) were increased, together occupying 30%. On the other hand, the rest of 70% (67.1%, 96 units) have kept being used. While the facility management has been deteriorated from the COVID-19 pandemic, replacement is needed more hereafter.

Future Outlook

According to the documents at National Cancer Center, the number of cancer patients is likely to be on the slight decline, with 1,012,100 cases in 2020 down by 0.5% from the previous year, and 1,009,800 cases in 2021 slight decrease by 0.2%. The number of patients used to be on the rise until 2019, but it is expected to decline consecutively in 2020 and 2021, due to the coronavirus infections leading to smaller number of people undergoing cancer screening, and avoidance of going to hospitals.

However, recovery in the number of people undergoing health check, cancer screening, and that of going to hospitals are projected to make the number of cancer patients to be on the rise once again.

In association with governmental measures, establishment and spread of radiation treatment are likely to be in progress through 1) influence and mutual interaction of molecular target drugs, 2) influence and mutual interaction of cancer genome medicine, 3) enhancement in particle therapy systems, 4) wider use of palliative radiation therapy, 5) uniform accessibility of radiotherapy, and 6) enhancement in cross-prefectural cooperation system. In addition, there are high expectations for the combination treatment of radiotherapy with hyperthermia and radiosensitizers.

Research Outline