Hadrontherapy: the ENLIGHT network

The use of ionizing radiation as a treatment for cancer is nowadays well established, but the traditional radiotherapy, which employs very energetic photons (X-­‐‑rays), has several side effects. Some dose is deposited in healthy tissues so that the toxicity of the treatment is quite high. Hadrontherapy is a new generation of radiotherapy, based on the use of charged particles (protons and ions), which can penetrate the tissue with liDle diffusion and deposit the maximum energy in a defined small area, so that important orgasn and healthy tissues can\nbe spared more easily .