By Hiroshi Masumitsu
Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer
An X-ray therapy machine released by Japanese equipment manufacturer Hitachi High-Tech Corp. has been selling well since it was released two years ago.
The product, named OXRAY, is the only one of its kind produced in Japan. The company aims to bring the product to the global market in the future after accumulating clinical evidence.
Radiation therapy is one of three major cancer treatments alongside surgery and drug therapy. It allows more of the affected organs to be kept in the body, enabling organ function to be maintained.
Companies in the United States and Europe have an overwhelmingly large share of the market for machines that irradiate X-rays externally.
In April 2017, corporate group of Hitachi Ltd. -- Hitachi High-Tech's parent company -- acquired the X-ray therapy machine business of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., which was the last remaining company to manufacture the machines in Japan. The Hitachi group developed OXRAY following that acquisition.
OXRAY costs several hundred million yen, about the same price as the top-tier models of other manufacturers. Nine medical institutions in Japan, including the National Cancer Center Hospital East, have bought the machine since it started being sold in July 2023.
The most significant feature of OXRAY is a new kind of mechanism that allows the angle of irradiation to be more flexibly adjusted. In addition to the vertical rotation of the machine's donut-shaped gantry, the machine's foundation can rotate 60 degrees horizontally, both clockwise and counterclockwise. With other machines, the patient needs to be moved to change the horizontal angle, requiring time and energy. OXRAY's two-axis rotation, however, means the angle of irradiation can be adjusted without the patient being moved. The new technology has enabled OXRAY to achieve two goals simultaneously: improving precision and shortening treatment time.
During treatment, it is important to concentrate the X-rays on the tumor as much as possible, as doing so minimizes irradiation to surrounding healthy tissues. Manufacturers are vying to develop technologies to increase this precision. Hitachi High-Tech said that OXRAY excels in "volumetric modulated arc therapy," in which X-rays can be irradiated from various angles while their intensity can be adjusted to correspond to the complex shapes of tissues. The method is effective when organs that are susceptible to side effects are adjacent to the target tumor, among other cases.
According to Shuji Kaneko, general manager of Hitachi High-Tech's X-ray Therapy Division, the United States accounts for about 40% of global sales of X-ray therapy machines and the European Union accounts for about 30%. Japan, meanwhile, accounts for slightly above 10%.
"It seems that our main target will be the United States," Kaneko said. "We have yet to begin the approval process (for OXRAY) as a medical device in the United States and Europe, but we will work on accumulating clinical evidence to gain international recognition of the benefits of OXRAY."
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September 30, 2025 01:10 ET (05:10 GMT)
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