Radiotherapy refers to the therapeutic procedures using high energy electromagnetic waves or radioactive particulates to thwart abnormal cell growths within our body system and repair different physiological abnormalities. A strong trend of increasing incidence of cancer cases across the globe majorly drives the growth of the radiotherapy market. Other growth factors include technological advancements in radiotherapy products, increasing symposiums driving investments in radiotherapy, rise in number of geriatric population and growing adoption of radiotherapy devices and procedures.
The technology segment of radiotherapy will be important revenue pockets during the forecast period (2015–2020). By technology, the Radiotherapy Market is divided into external beam radiotherapy, internal beam radiotherapy, and systemic radiation therapy. The image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) market is expected to dominate the external beam radiotherapy market by 2020. Development of advanced IGRT products, growing adoption of IGRT procedures, and growth in the number of research activities focusing on the development of advanced products are the major factors driving the growth of the IGRT technology market.
North America is expected to account for the largest share of the global radiotherapy market in 2015. However, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period from 2015 to 2020 due to increasing cases of new cancer cases and rapidly growing aging population in this region. Aging is associated with risk of developing cancer. Hence, growing aging population leads to increase in the number of new cancer cases. As of September 2013, Japan had around 31.86 million people over 65 years of age, an increase of ~1.12 million as compared to the previous year (Source: The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan). It is expected that the cancer cases in Japan will rise at a high rate in the coming years owing to this increasing aging population. According to GLOBOCAN 2012, of the total 0.7 million new cancer cases in Japan in 2012, ~73% were aged 65 years and above. The growing aging population and increasing incidence of cancer in Asia-Pacific region is expected to create a significant demand for radiotherapy procedures in this region.
