Features and Achievements of QST Hospital

Features of the hospital

QST Hospital, which is part of the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, is a single-discipline radiation medicine hospital that specializes in cancer radiation therapy. It is also equipped to serve as a radiation emergency medicine center.

As a hospital established jointly with a radiation medicine research institute, it provides medical care with a focus on cancer radiation therapy, particularly carbon ion radiotherapy for cancer.

​The hospital is equipped with a special carbon ion radiotherapy system referred to as the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) for research on carbon ion radiotherapy for cancer, and it began conducting clinical research and providing treatment in 1994. The hospital has the most extensive treatment results in the world.

​A variety of protocols have been established with the aim of further expanding the indications for carbon ion radiotherapy for cancer in the future. The hospital is working to accommodate patients with diseases in addition to those for which insurance coverage and advanced medical care are currently applicable.

Leading the world in carbon ion radiotherapy

The focus of the treatment provided at QST hospital is carbon ion radiotherapy. Compared with conventional radiation therapy, carbon ion radiotherapy minimizes the effects of treatment on normal cells, enabling a high dose to be concentrated on the targeted cancer cells. The HIMAC carbon ion radiotherapy system, the first such system in the world developed for medical use, was developed at this hospital, making the hospital the leader in carbon ion radiotherapy. Based on research and clinical results accumulated over a quarter of a century, the hospital provides state-of-the-art carbon ion radiotherapy to cancer patients.
In addition, to concentrate the effect of the carbon ion beam on the diseased area and thereby increase efficacy while reducing adverse effects, this hospital developed a 3-dimensional beam scanning irradiation method that enables respiratory-gated irradiation, and began using this method in treatment in 2011. To allow patients to undergo treatment in a comfortable position, in 2018 this hospital began administering carbon ion radiotherapy using a small rotating gantry equipped with superconductor technology that allows carbon ion beams to be irradiated from all directions.

Extensive research and treatment results

A total of 15,024 patients have been enrolled in clinical studies of carbon ion radiotherapy conducted at this hospital (June 1994 to March 2023), and the numbers of patients who have received the treatment as advanced medical care and through public insurance have increased since 2003 and 2016, respectively.