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The Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center is using advanced radiation to treat patients with eye cancer, successfully retaining their eyeballs, which greatly improves patients' life quality.

The center is the first in China and the third in the world to use cutting-edge proton and heavy ion beams to eliminate malignant tissue without damaging healthy tissue and cells.

Since it opened 10 years ago, the center has treated over 8,000 patients. The disease type has also expanded from seven to some 50, covering all common cancers in the nation while focusing on brain, lung, liver, prostate, nasopharynx, pancreatic and breast cancer.

Catering to patients' demand, the center started to study radiation treatment for choroidal melanoma, the most common intraocular cancer in adults. Its usual treatment is surgical removal of the eyeball to prevent the growth and metastasis of cancer, putting patients under strong physical and psychological pressure.

The center started research and clinical trials in 2020 and became the first and only one in China to use a "non-invasive" beam to treat the disease.

So far, it has treated over 50 cases of eye cancer, and none of the patients reported shrinking or deformed eyeballs during follow-up visits.

In the latest case, a patient surnamed Li with choroidal melanoma visited the center, expressing a strong desire to keep his eyeball.

"My doctor said my cancer inside the eyeball was growing bigger and it could influence other organs and I needed to have surgery to remove the eyeball. I refused to accept the treatment, so my doctor suggested I try heavy ion treatment in Shanghai," said the patient, who received five courses of heavy ion radiation without pain or trauma. He retained his eyeball successfully and was discharged.

According to the center, patients from the Yangtze River Delta region account for half of its cases, while it has also received nearly 100 overseas patients from China's Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, France, South Korea, Singapore and Romania.

Its medical staff speaks English, German, French, Japanese and Korean. It is also covered by commercial medical insurance.

If you go

Shanghai Proton and Heavy Ion Center

Tel: 3829-6600, 3829-6601

Address: 4365 Kangxin Highway, Pudong New Area 浦东新区康新公路4365号