Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    THE University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital opened a radiological department Wednesday that boasts cutting-edge cancer treatment medical equipment, which local health authorities say will help improve Shenzhen’s lacking cancer treatment capabilities.

    The hospital established a tumor treatment center in March 2014 and the center, one of the five major treatment centers in the hospital, has since received more than 10,000 patients, according to the hospital.

    The newly opened radiological department, part of the tumor treatment center, has a series of cutting-edge devices, including a linear accelerator, which is the most common type of device used for external beam radiation treatments for patients with cancer.

    The World Health Organization recommends that five linear accelerators be made available for every 1 million people, but Shenzhen, which had about 14 million residents in 2013 based on the city government’s official statistics, has only seven such instruments, which means roughly one linear accelerator for every 2 million residents, official statistics show.

    Every year, around 15,000 people in Shenzhen are diagnosed with having a tumor; of those, nearly 10,000 went to Guangzhou to seek medical treatment, the director of Shenzhen’s health commission, Luo Lexuan, told reporters at the opening ceremony yesterday.

    Li Yongmei, manager of the hospital’s tumor treatment center who previously led a Hong Kong hospital’s cancer treatment department for 18 years, said the new department plans to provide radiotherapy services to 30 patients a day for the time being and plans to introduce more advanced devices to meet the demand.

    “The center is filling the gap that Shenzhen has in cancer treatment and will save cancer patients the trouble of going somewhere else for treatment,” said Luo.