Shimadzu and Hokkaido University develop tumour-tracking system

Shimadzu has announced that its partnership with Hokkaido University on the development of real-time tumour-tracking technology has resulted in the creation of a new prototype.

The experimental device has been created by the company with the assistance of Professors Hiroki Shirato and Masayori Ishikawa of the university, and is designed for next-generation high-precision radiotherapy applications.

It enables pinpointing radiation that targets cancerous tissues while avoiding healthy cells and is even able to treat parts of the body that do not maintain a fixed position due to respiratory movement, such as the liver and lungs.

Further testing of the prototype model will now be conducted to refine it further, with Shimadzu intending to commercialise the product internationally in the 2012 fiscal year.

"Hokkaido University and Shimadzu will continue to strive to produce concrete results from their ongoing joint academia-industry collaborations aimed at providing advanced medical technologies to clinicians as early as possible," the company said.

This comes after Shimadzu agreed a new joint research agreement with Shimane University for neonatal mass screening using tandem mass spectrometry earlier this year.