Tumor Therapy with Heavy Charged Particles

Conference · Fri Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1999

OSTI ID:785394

Blattmann, Hans

Nuclear science has contributed significantly to the development of tumor therapy with heavy charged particles. Interest evolved for neutron therapies in the forties because of the increased radiobiological effectiveness (RBE) compared to photon irradiation. The development of more powerful proton and heavy ion accelerators with higher energies or higher intensities, made new particles for radiation therapy available. Pions, protons, light ions, from helium up to silicon were studied in view of precision dose delivery and increased RBE. Without the parallel development of new diagnostic techniques such as computer tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) the rapid development would not have been possible. Heavy-charged particle therapy has now come into a consolidation phase. Hospital-based facilities are built by industry, and research institutes focus on refinements in dose delivery and treatment planning, as well as systems for monitoring dose delivery and for dose distribution verification.

• Research Organization: Division of Radiation Medicine, Paul Scherer Institute, Switzerland
• OSTI ID: 785394
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
CHARGED PARTICLES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
HEAVY ION ACCELERATORS
HEAVY IONS
HELIUM
IRRADIATION
LIGHT IONS
NEOPLASMS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
PHOTONS
PIONS
PLANNING
POSITRONS
PROTONS
RADIATION DOSE DISTRIBUTIONS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOTHERAPY
REVIEWS
THERAPY
TOMOGRAPHY