X-ray-induced acoustic computed tomography (XACT) is one of the biomedical imaging methods developed in recent years. It is widely welcomed by its advantages such as low X-ray radiation dose, rapid three-dimensional imaging and multi-angle imaging. The article summarizes the development background and research progress of XACT, elaborates the imaging principle. Then, the four imaging modes based on unit transducer, ring transducer, hemispherical transducer and flat rectangular transducer are introduced systematically. Meanwhile, it is briefly introduced the application of XACT in biomedical fields such as breast, prostate and bone density imaging. Finally, we make a prospect for XACT in X-ray dose monitoring, proton therapy process monitoring, and multi-modal imaging combined with synchrotron radiation light sources. The multi-dimensional and multi-scale imaging information provided by multi-modal imaging will help provide important reference for early detection, diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and effect evaluation of related diseases.