(Yicai Global) March 16 -- The first China International Import Expo will open in Shanghai in November. High-tech companies worldwide will showcase their latest products at the fair, where a new device for treating tumors unveiled by Elekta is sure to be a hit.

Elekta Instrument AB, a leading player in Sweden's oncotherapy field, inked an exhibition participation contract with the China International Import Expo Bureau today. Elekta will display its latest magnetic resonance radiotherapy system, Elekta Unity, which is the world's first medical device that combines magnetic resonance with radiotherapy to significantly improve the accuracy of tumor treatment.

Elekta Unity has yet to debut worldwide and the company plans to win approval from relevant agencies in Europe and the US this year and unveil it when the expo convenes, said Liu Jianbin, vice president and marketing director of Elekta China at the signing ceremony. The application for the product is also underway in China. 

Elekta chooses to showcase its latest research result at the expo because China has become the world's largest tumor treatment market, Liu said. Over 4.2 million new tumor cases crop up in China every year, where a major shortfall in premium radiotherapy equipment exists. The world's average level of access to radiotherapy equipment is two to three units per one million people, while the figure in China is 1.4 units, statistics show.

Elekta was founded by the co-inventor of the cobalt radiation brain-tumor treatment Gamma Knife Prof. Lars Leksell in the Swedish capital of Stockholm in 1972. The company's tumor treatment and neurosurgery solutions in use in over 6,000 hospitals worldwide provide diagnoses and treatments to 100,000 patients each day.

Established in China for over 30 years, Elekta now has factories and research and development centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and 500 employees, Liu said.