South Korea's SEC Joins National R&D Project for Active Dose Distribution Control Radiotherapy Equipment

South Korean electron beam source technology company SEC announced on August 25 that it has been selected as a joint research institution for the "World's Best Active Dose Distribution Control Radiotherapy Machine R&D" project, and will participate in the development of core technologies related to next-generation radiotherapy equipment.

The project is a newly established task under the "Global Flagship Medical Device R&D" program of the South Korean government's medical device R&D fund, with a duration of 6 years and 6 months, starting from July this year and planned to continue until December 2032. The total project budget is 35.2 billion KRW, of which 28 billion KRW is government funding. Radexel serves as the lead institution, with SEC participating as a joint research institution. Other participating organizations include the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Korea Testing Laboratory, Asan Medical Center, and Oncosoft.

It is understood that Asan Medical Center has also been designated as a joint research institution, and the project aims to advance the radiotherapy system to a level where it can be installed and used in actual medical environments. Medical institutions will introduce clinical requirements during the R&D phase and verify the field applicability of the equipment. This means the project does not stop at technology development but also targets subsequent commercialization and market promotion.

The project's key R&D directions include MPRT (magnetic field-based precision radiotherapy) and adaptive radiotherapy. The former reduces radiation toxicity to normal tissues through magnetic fields, while the latter measures the patient's tumor size, location, and organ morphology on the day of treatment and readjusts the treatment plan accordingly to improve treatment matching.

In this project, SEC will be responsible for the localized development of medical linear accelerators and will supply diagnostic computed tomography (CT) technology that can be used for real-time measurement. The medical linear accelerator is one of the core components of radiotherapy equipment. SEC's participation period in the project is 4 years and 6 months, ending in December 2030, with corresponding government funding of 2.5 billion KRW.

This is another national-level large-scale R&D task undertaken by SEC in the field of next-generation radiotherapy, following its participation in the "FLASH 1-Second Cancer Treatment Machine Strategic Research Project" in July last year. In the previous project, SEC received 6.25 billion KRW in government support and was responsible for developing core equipment and systems for the FLASH radiotherapy machine, including an ultra-high dose rate electron beam medical linear accelerator.

SEC stated that the company is progressively expanding its presence in the medical field around medical linear accelerators and diagnostic CT core technologies, with technology applications covering two types of next-generation radiotherapy equipment: FLASH treatment machines and active dose distribution control treatment machines. A company official stated that with government support, the company will secure the funding needed for medical R&D, drive technology development, and strive to achieve eventual commercialization.