Haobo Shi Medical Launches Globally Innovative Multi-Cavity, Minimally Invasive HIPEC System After Over a Decade of R&D

According to the latest statistical data released by the National Cancer Center in 2023, there were 4.67 million new cancer cases in China in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 3%. Clinical statistical data accumulated over many years by Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital indicate that the proportion of cancer patients eligible for hyperthermic intracavitary perfusion is as high as 16%.

Although hyperthermic intracavitary perfusion has a broad range of indications and significant potential clinical demand, the domestic market in China still exhibits substantial gaps. This is primarily due to high technical barriers within the industry and the prolonged regulatory approval cycles for medical devices. “The global market size for hyperthermic intracavitary perfusion, both domestically and internationally, could reach RMB 50 billion, with growing related clinical demands; however, 90% of the market remains untapped, indicating enormous market potential,” stated Professor Li, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Xi'an Good Doctor Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd.

Xi'an Good Doctor Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Good Doctor Medical”) was established in 2007. Dedicated to the research and development of HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) perfusion equipment and clinical treatment protocols, it is a high-tech enterprise providing comprehensive perioperative medical solutions—covering preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative stages—for the “prevention of cancerous implantation metastasis” and the “control of malignant body cavity effusions.”, and holds import and export operating rights. Meanwhile, Good Doctor Medical has established a German subsidiary as its European technical support center.

Xi'an Good Doctor Medical Science and Technology Co.,Ltd.

Professor Li, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Good Doctor MedicalGraduated from the Fourth Military Medical University, with over 20 years of clinical experience. Held 10 domestic and international invention patents, 8 utility model patents, and 2 design patents. Published more than 20 academic papers. Participated in two key research projects of the People's Liberation Army and one research project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

In clinical practice, Professor Li of the company has encountered many patients with malignant serous effusions caused by tumor metastasis and has witnessed firsthand the suffering they endure. As a common complication of advanced malignant tumors, this condition significantly shortens survival time. Currently, conventional treatments include chemotherapy and thoracentesis/paracentesis (fluid drainage), but both methods have certain drawbacks that lead to unsatisfactory therapeutic outcomes. For instance, chemotherapy can cause various side effects, making it difficult for most patients to tolerate. While fluid drainage may provide temporary relief, it often accelerates and increases fluid reaccumulation, and easily leads to pleural thickening, adhesion, and impaired lung function. Moreover, fluid drainage causes significant loss of proteins, electrolytes, and other nutrients from the body, which can worsen the patient’s condition or even lead to death.

Currently, clinical tumor treatment methods—whether surgical resection, radiotherapy, or minimally invasive techniques such as microwave ablation, radiofrequency ablation, and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)—are primarily directed at solid tumors, addressing localized (“point”) lesions. However, these modalities are ineffective in cases involving deeply situated tumors, residual disease that has not been completely eradicated, or diffuse metastatic spread. Professor Li explained:Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal/Intracavitary Perfusion Therapy leverages three key physical properties of water—diffusivity, thermal conductivity, and mechanical lavage—to enable the perfusate to disseminate throughout the entire body cavity. This ensures comprehensive contact with and eradication of tumor cells, while promoting biofilm repair, thereby addressing the “surface-level” challenges that cannot be resolved by surgery or radiotherapy alone., effectively preventing tumor seeding and metastasis, and reducing the production of malignant effusion.

According to Professor Li,HIPEC Body Cavity Circulatory Hyperthermic Perfusion Therapy is one of the few medical devices currently available for clinical treatment that can address diffuse tumor lesions.It leverages the differential thermal sensitivity between cancer cells and normal cells, rendering cancer cells intolerant to mild hyperthermia (42±0.5°C) while leaving normal cells undamaged. Furthermore, the synergistic effects of mild hyperthermia, physical perfusion, and chemotherapeutic agents enhance drug efficacy, thereby further increasing the probability of eradicating cancer cells.

To address two major clinical challenges—implantation metastasis after malignant tumor surgery and malignant body cavity effusion caused by subsequent metastasis—Professor Li founded Good Doctor Medical in 2007, attracting numerous industry peers. The core team members of Good Doctor Medical have over a decade of experience in controlling postoperative tumor metastasis and managing malignant effusions, possessing extensive clinical treatment expertise.

Professor Li, Founder of Good Doctor (left), and Professor Sugarbaker, President of the International Peritoneal Cancer Consortium, Director of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Washington Cancer Institute in the United States, and founder of the discipline of peritoneal cancer treatment (right)

Addressing critical challenges in clinical treatment, the Good Doctor HIPEC Therapy System effectively inhibits cancer cell metastasis and prevents the recurrence of malignant ascites. Featuring proactive defense and metastasis control capabilities, it enables comprehensive hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy throughout the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases.

The Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System utilizes catheters placed intraoperatively, or postoperative thoracic/abdominal puncture needles or drainage tubes, to infuse perfusate into the body cavity via percutaneous techniques after automatic heating within the treatment unit. Under comprehensive computerized dynamic monitoring and feedback regulation, the system maintains the intraperitoneal perfusate at a therapeutic temperature of 42.5°C, ensuring continuous isothermal circulation for 60 minutes. Meanwhile, heat-sensitive chemotherapeutic agents can be added to the system, achieving a synergistic effect between chemotherapy and hyperthermia, thereby effectively eliminating free cancer cells or microscopic implantation metastases. When used in conjunction with surgery, this system can treat or prevent tumor implantation and metastasis; when used alone, it can effectively control malignant effusions, improving patients' quality of life and survival duration.

Good Doctor Body Cavity Hyperthermic Perfusion Therapy System, available in two models: GDPR-2100T and GDPR-2100S

Overall, the Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System features four major innovations:

First, regarding heating methods, traditional water bath heating and microwave heating cannot achieve rapid heating, uniform heating, or dynamic constant-temperature heating at high flow rates.Xi’an Good Doctor Medical has abandoned all existing heating methods currently on the market. Instead, it employs a 360° rotatable, three-dimensional, non-contact electromagnetic instant-heating system. This design not only ensures rapid and uniform heating but also maintains thermal stability and consistency even at high flow rates, with a temperature control accuracy of ±0.1°C. This heating technology has already been granted invention patents both domestically and internationally.

Second, in terms of the design of the circulation circuit, traditional medical irrigation tubing faces the issues of being unable to provide dynamically temperature- and pressure-controlled irrigation fluid when heating is required, and difficulty in real-time monitoring of contained gases.Xi'an Good Doctor Medical's Double-Row, Double-Layer Perfusion Tubing Devicethus effectively addressing the aforementioned issues.

Third, the Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System features a dynamic pressure balance function., ensuring that the fluid volume within the human body cavities remains balanced and stable during extracorporeal circulation therapy, thereby guaranteeing clinical safety.

Fourth, minimally invasive "acupuncture-like" therapy can be achieved without surgery.Currently, the administration of most hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) products on the market relies on surgical incisions or intraoperatively placed catheters. The functionality of these delivery systems is enabled by innovative heating methods, optimized tubing design, and dynamic pressure balancing capabilities.

“Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) systems were initially used exclusively in surgical settings, which are associated with significant trauma, poor repeatability, and limitations imposed by the number of surgeries and indications. In contrast, adopting a minimally invasive approach expands their application to a broader range of clinical scenarios, thereby enhancing treatment repeatability,” emphasized Professor Li. He pointed out that since HIPEC systems are classified as therapeutic devices, treatment repeatability is particularly critical, as it directly impacts therapeutic efficacy. The Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System enables tube connection via needle puncture or drainage catheters and delivers treatment to patients who remain fully awake in a ward setting. This approach offers excellent repeatability, allowing patients to be admitted for treatment in alignment with their chemotherapy cycles.

According to Professor Li,Good Doctor Medical is the world’s first provider to offer needle-based hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) under non-surgical conditions. Its HIPEC treatment system is one of the few devices in the industry suitable for use in both internal medicine and surgery.

Furthermore, the Good Doctor HIPEC treatment system offers multiple perfusion modes, including single-channel perfusion, unlimited-volume perfusion, and high-flow-rate continuous isothermal lavage. The extracorporeal circuit volume (dead space) of this system is less than 500 mL, meaning that no more than 500 mL of perfusate circulates during the process, whereas most existing products on the market exceed 3,000 mL. In comparison, the Good Doctor HIPEC treatment system causes less dilution of chemotherapeutic agents, thereby better preserving drug efficacy. Additionally, Good Doctor Medical continues to maintain its first-mover advantage by introducing a feature that enables real-time temperature monitoring within the body cavity. According to Professor Li, currently, only Good Doctor can achieve this capability on the market.

Independently developed, with over 20 proprietary intellectual property rights; patents have also been granted in multiple regions abroad.

Notably, the heating unit, power pump, and other consumables of the Good Doctor HIPEC treatment system are all independently developed by the company, rather than being assembled from off-the-shelf products available on the market.As a product independently developed from the ground up, the Body Cavity Hyperthermic Perfusion Therapy System, researched and manufactured by Good Doctor, holds more than 20 independent intellectual property rights. Meanwhile, the product has obtained patents in Australia, Germany, Russia, the United States, the European Union, South Korea, Canada, Africa, and other regions.

“In the interview, Professor Li emphasized that a key design philosophy behind his product is a high degree of automation. This has resulted in the Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System being user-friendly, well-accepted by patients, and highly reproducible in treatment outcomes.”

As a common and frequently occurring disease, tumors have a high prevalence. If the operation of treatment equipment is highly complex, it will significantly increase the difficulty of promotion, making it challenging to meet broader clinical needs.The Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System features convenience and intelligence, enabling a single operator to manage three devices simultaneously. This significantly lowers the technical barrier for medical staff, making the system accessible and user-friendly for most physicians., thereby facilitating the large-scale operation of the device and promoting its widespread adoption in employee hospitals, county-level hospitals, and even community health centers.

Good Doctor·Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) | 2,200 m² New Cleanroom Facility

Currently,The Good Doctor HIPEC Treatment System, including its equipment and consumables, has obtained both the EU CE certification and the domestic NMPA registration certificate, and is currently being marketed in both domestic and international markets.In the international market, this product has reached countries including Germany, Austria, India, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Domestically, since its launch, cumulative sales have exceeded 50 units, generating over RMB 10 million in revenue, with 15 provincial- and municipal-level distributors signed.

Professor Li, founder of Good Doctor (right), and Austrian hyperthermia expert Dr. Keliff (left)

In recent years, clinical acceptance of hyperthermic intracavitary perfusion technology has gradually increased. The industry is currently in a growth phase and approaching an inflection point for rapid expansion. In this regard, Professor Li stated that Xi'an Good Doctor Medical Science and Technology Co., Ltd. will continue to focus on the research and development (R&D) of hyperthermic perfusion equipment for different body cavities, the R&D of therapeutic auxiliary devices, the application and upgrading of new technologies and materials in equipment, as well as the R&D of specialized hyperthermic perfusion solutions. The company aims to launch one upgraded product every two years and introduce a new product targeting a different body cavity every three years.

Currently, leveraging its technological advantages in dynamic pressure balancing and acupuncture-based microcirculation, the company has initiated the research and development of equipment for the control and treatment of pericardial effusion, aiming to provide an effective therapeutic solution for malignant pericardial effusion in patients with advanced-stage cancer. The product is scheduled to complete prototype trial production by the end of 2024. In addition, the company is extending its body cavity hyperthermic perfusion technology to the uterine cavity. According to Professor Li,Good Doctor Medical is the first enterprise in China to successfully develop thermal perfusion therapy equipment for pericardial and joint cavity technologies.

“My greatest wish is for the innovations of Good Doctor Medical to benefit more patients, enabling them to extend their lives and enjoy a high quality of life.” In the interview, Professor Li repeatedly emphasized that he not only hopes Good Doctor will become a leader in the industry of hyperthermic intracavitary perfusion therapy, but also that the company’s products will bring benefits to an increasing number of patients.

Currently, Xi'an Good Doctor Medical Science and Technology Co.,Ltd. is conducting a new round of financing. The funds raised will be primarily used for production capital, academic promotion, marketing, international trade, and research and development of new products.