Andrea Mairani: Proton and helium beams: the present and the future of light ion beam therapy

In comparison to conventional photon radiation, ion beams offer favorable physical and biological properties, which may enable maximizing the dose delivered to the tumor volume, while reducing the dose to sensitive organs at risk and the integral dose to the patient. To date, about 70 ion therapy facilities worldwide treat patients with ion beams, predominantly protons and, to a lower extent, carbon ions.  However, synchrotron-based multi-source facilities such as the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) can offer the possibility to produce and accelerate to therapeutic energies additional ion species such as helium and oxygen. 

In this talk, modeling and experimental characterization of proton and He ion beams at HIT are described. This includes MC-based developments, introduction of a novel GPU analytical platform and dosimetric and biological experimental investigations.   

The potential biophysical benefits of the helium beams over the proton beams for patient treatments will be summarized.