(Yicai Global) May 28 -- Chinese researchers have started clinical trials of heavy-ion medical accelerators used to treat cancer patients as the country looks to curb its reliance on foreign technology.

The accelerator, located in Gansu province in China's northwest, kills cancer cells by firing high-energy electrons at them and is already being tested to treat tumors in the head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis and limbs, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported. Some 36 leading doctors in the field will oversee the trials.

Heavy-ion therapy is an advanced cancer treatment, said Xiao Guoqing, director of the Institute of Modern Physics under the Chinese Academy of Science, which developed the equipment. Compared with electron ray and X-rays used in tumor radiotherapy, a heavy-ion beam causes less radiation damage to healthy tissue and has a shorter course of treatment, he added.

The domestically-made equipment marks the end of China's dependence on imports, the report added. The Institute of Modern Physics under the Chinese Academy of Science began basic research into the treatment in 1993 and developed two sets of equipment, one in Lanzhou and one in Wuwei, in 2015. Medical equipment testing took two years and finished in April this year, when clinical trials began.

China makes up nearly a quarter of the world's new cancer cases, the report said, citing 2017 data from the National Cancer Center which shows there are 10,000 new patients in the country every day and two million cancer-induced deaths per year. The nation was the fourth to focus research on heavy-ion cancer treatments, behind the United States, Germany and Japan.

Industrialization of the treatment will also be beneficial to the equipment manufacturing industry, generating demand for heavy-ion accelerators and leading to industry clusters worth hundreds of billions of yuan (tens of billions of dollars), the report added.

Editor: James Boynton