Nuclear Medicine Institute, Localization of Power Supply for Cancer Treatment Accelerator

On the 5th, the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences announced that it has succeeded in domestic production of the high-voltage current device, a core component of the tandem accelerator used for selective cancer treatment.

The research team of the Atomic Medicine Institute's medical accelerator is taking a commemorative photo in front of the tandem accelerator high-voltage power supply. Photo by Atomic Medicine Institute

The tandem accelerator is a device that accelerates particles using an electric field and is used to create ion beams for analysis or neutrons for neutron capture therapy.

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), a type of radiation therapy, is a new treatment technology that injects a boron drug, which is harmless to the human body and concentrates on cancer cells, into cancer patients, then irradiates neutrons generated by an accelerator to the treatment area, selectively destroying only cancer cells while minimizing damage to normal cells. It is characterized by treating cancer with a single irradiation without surgery.

For BNCT, a high-power proton accelerator is required to produce and irradiate neutrons. The high-current proton tandem accelerator-based system, first developed domestically by the Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, uses less energy than existing linear accelerator or cyclotron-based systems, making the overall system smaller and allowing more economical and efficient operation in hospitals.

The Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences has been conducting research since 2019 to replace the high-power proton accelerator required for this treatment with a compact and energy-efficient high-current proton tandem accelerator.

Lee Jin-kyung, Director of the Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, said, "With the successful development of the core device of the tandem accelerator, we expect to accelerate the domestic development of advanced boron neutron capture therapy devices, narrow the gap with leading overseas technologies, and enable patients with intractable cancers to benefit from treatment sooner."