New research horizon in hadrontherapy

摘要

The treatment of oncological diseases with particle beams, at present protons and carbon ions, collectively named hadrontherapy, represents a modality known since long time but with steadily increasing clinical indications and positive results. The constant better dose distribution of hadrons vs. X-rays helps to reduce the exposure of healthy tissues and represents the requirement to reduce toxicity and thereby increase the therapeutic gap. Carbon ions are furthermore confirming their effectiveness in the treatment of more radio-resistant cancers difficult to treat with the conventional approach. We are therefore faced with a fast-evolving scenario: several new centers are now operational and others will be shortly, technology is evolving, the number of patients treated has significantly increased with the possibility of conducting rigorous clinical protocols. The publications on hadrontherapy have taken on characteristics of rash growth over the past years, but the main issue to be remarked is the change in the type of these publications: from physical testing subject to contents of clinical type, with increasingly large cases and discussion of new procedures or technologies to be applied in the treatment of patients. In this article the perspective of this evolving scenario is given, paying attention to the evolution of the different domains from clinical practice to medical physics, from accelerator technology to bioengineering and radiobiology.