May 08, 2026

On March 19, 2026, BNCT treatment for head and neck cancer (hereafter "Treatment") was administered for the first time at the Pengbo (Hainan) BNCT Center, where the BNCT treatment system "NeuCure^®" and the BNCT dose calculation program "NeuCure^® Dose Engine," both by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Head office: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Toshiro Watanabe; hereafter “SHI”), have been introduced. The center is located in the Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in China.

The Treatment, a combination of the NeuCure^® BNCT treatment system by SHI and the "Steboronine^®" boron drug for BNCT by STELLA PHARMA CORPORATION, demonstrates the commencement of an actual clinical use of BNCT in China.

It is also planned that the real world data obtained in the Hainan Medical Tourism Pilot Zone will be utilized in applications to distribute medical devices in Mainland China in the future. SHI is positioning the Treatment as the first step towards expansion into the Chinese market.
Going forward, we will contribute to the development of global medicine through the international deployment of advanced technologies for treating cancer by collaborating with partners.

[About the Hainan Medical Tourism Pilot Zone]
The Hainan Medical Tourism Pilot Zone is a special deregulated zone aimed at promoting medical tourism, with priority given to import of medical equipment and drugs.
The most distinctive feature of the Hainan Medical Tourism Pilot Zone is that the import and the use of any medical equipment or drugs in China is approved if the medical equipment is approved in other developed countries and are clinically urgently needed, even if they have not yet been approved in China, on the premise that they are to be used at designated medical institutions. While normally requires a process of prior testing via clinical trials before applications can be filed and obtaining approval from the regulatory authorities. This allows the medical institutions to perform treatment in actual clinical practice without conducting clinical trials.

■For details regarding this matter, please see the below URL
・Notice Regarding Our First Overseas Introduction of BNCT in the Hainan Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, China (June 24, 2022)
https://www.shi.co.jp/info/2022/6kgpsq000000lngk.html