Application of radiation in nuclear medicine, charged particle therapy and BNCT in Japan

Yanagisawa, Kazuaki; Inoue, Tomio*; Hayakawa, Kazushige*; Shiotari, Harutaka*; Nakamura, Yoshihide*; Matsuyama, Kazuya*; Nagasawa, Kiyoshi*

The economic scale of radiological technologies applied to medical reimbursement is 14 billion dollars in 2005, which is larger by a factor of 17% than that of 1997. The value corresponds to about 4 to 8% (4.4% for medicine and 0.4% for dentistry) of the national health expenditure (301 billion dollars). The economic scale of radiation application at FDGPET and the charged particle therapy is 74 million dollars and 24 million dollars in 2005. In 1997 it was only 2 million dollars for the former and zero for the latter. The radiation technologies in these fields are rapidly developing. FDGPET enhanced the survival of 50,558 patients. Charged particle therapy enhanced the survival of 927 patients at 4 specified hospitals and 5,229 patients at the Proton Medical Research Center University of Tsukuba. Radiological technology is quite beneficial for the improvement of Japanese people's quality of life (QOL).