STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
"The Ministry's clearance of Versa HD is an important step in addressing serious increases in cancer incidences and deaths in Japan"
Cancer care providers in Japan have the opportunity to strengthen their cancer treatment capacity with the recent clearance of Elekta's Versa HD™ by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Versa HD is an advanced radiation treatment system designed to enhance the management of cancer care and treat a broad spectrum of tumors throughout the body. In a single system, Versa HD is capable of delivering conventional therapies for a wide range of indications commonly seen in the clinic, while also permitting treatment of complex cancers that require exceptional targeting accuracy.
The clearance of Versa HD in Japan follows CE marking of the system from the European Union and 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2013.
An official report* put the number of cancer deaths in 2012 in Japan at approximately 361,000, with the number of male cancer deaths 1.5 times greater than female cancer deaths. Lung cancer was the most prevalent for men at 24 percent, followed by stomach (15 percent), colorectal (12 percent), liver (9.3 percent) and pancreas (7.2 percent). Among women, the most common cancer was colorectal at 15 percent, followed by lung (13.8 percent), stomach (11.6 percent), pancreas (10 percent) and breast (8.6 percent).
"The Ministry's clearance of Versa HD is an important step in addressing serious increases in cancer incidences and deaths in Japan," says Shuichi Higaki, President and Managing Director, Elekta Japan. "With its high precision beam shaping and tumor targeting technologies – in addition to three times higher dose rate delivery than our previous treatment systems – Versa HD offers patients in Japan the chance for a better outcome."