China's first home-grown medical heavy ion accelerator has successfully hurled beams of ions, according to the Institute of Modern Physics of China's Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Dec. 24, 2015. In the future, the ion beam treatment of cancers will not need to rely on the foreign equipment.

China began to develop the accelerator which is placed in Wuwei city, northwest China's Gansu province in May 2012. The accelerator can give heavy ion beam treatment to patients suffering from cancers of rare types, cancers which are not suitable for surgery and cancers that have a high probability of recurrence after treated in other ways.

China has only one set of imported heavy ion accelerator in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center.

The scientists of the Institute of Modern Physics of the CAS revealed that they can apply for a test for the accelerator by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) after it hurled beams of ions. This accelerator can be used to treat cancer patients if it passes the test of the CFDA and meets the requirements of the clinical trials.