Asan Medical Center to build Korea’s largest heavy ion therapy facility

The centre will leverage a system designed for treatment-resistant cancers.

Asan Medical Center (AMC) has announced plans to establish South Korea’s largest heavy ion therapy facility to expand personalised treatment options for hard-to-treat cancers.

The facility will be constructed on AMC’s Pungnap-dong campus in Seoul’s Songpa District with a planned floor area of 40,880㎡. It will include two rotating gantry treatment systems and one fixed beam treatment system.

To facilitate the introduction of a heavy ion therapy system, the centre signed an agreement with Toshiba ESS and DK Medical Solutions, launching full-scale preparations to begin operations by 2031.

The facility will use the system to treat cancers that are resistant to conventional therapies, such as lung cancer, sarcoma, kidney cancer, and recurrent cancers.

Moreover, it will also cover more common conditions such as prostate, pancreatic, and liver cancers.

Meanwhile, AMC plans to adopt a next-generation multi-ion source, enabling the use of carbon, helium, neon, and oxygen ions.

The multi-ion source approach is expected to reduce damage to healthy tissue, with potential applications for paediatric cancer care.