Future trends in cancer therapy with particle accelerators

Hadrontherapy is the radiotherapy technique that uses protons, neutrons or carbon ions. Protons and ions, being, heavy charged particles, allow a more conformal treatment than X-rays and thus spare better the surrounding healthy tissues. By now about 35000 patients have been treated worldwide with protons and about 1600 with carbon ions. Since few years protontherapy of deep-seated tumours is booming with two hospital centres running in USA and three under construction. Four centres are treating patients in Japan. The list of constructions going on elsewhere is long: two in China, one, in Germany, one in Korea, one in Switzerland. But the future hopes for a qualitatively different radiotherapy are centred on carbon ions: they have a larger biological effectiveness than X-rays and protons and are particularly suited to treat radio resistant tumours, as indicated by the encouraging results obtained on about 1400 patients in HIMAC (Chiba, Japan) and on about 200 patients at GSI (Darmstadt). Two carbon centres are under construction in Europe: one (designed by GSI) in Heidelberg (Germany) and the other (designed by the TERA Foundation, in collaboration with CERN and INFN) in Pave (Italy). Other projects are moving towards the financing phase in Wiener Neustadt (Austria), Lyon (France) and Stockholm (Sweden). The five European projects are collaborating in the framework of ENLIGHT, the European network for light ion therapy. (21 refs).