The Italian project for a hadrontherapy centre

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 360; no. 1-2; pp. 297 - 301
• Main Authors: Amaldi, U., Arduini, G., Badano, L., Cambria, R., Campi, D., Gerardi, F., Gramatica, F., Leone, R., Manfredi, G., Nonis, M., Pullia, M., Rossi, S., Sangaletti, L., Silari, M., Tosi, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.1995
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/0168-9002(94)01612-7

A feasibility study has just been completed for a hospital-based hadrontherapy facility to be built in Italy. This facility aims at the treatment of 1000 patients/year in 5 treatment rooms served by a H−/light ion synchrotron producing proton beams with energies ranging from 60 to 250 MeV. Generation of neutron beams for boron neutron capture therapy and production of positron emitting radionuclides for PET diagnostics is also foreseen. After an account of the rationale for the use of hadron beams in radiation therapy, a brief overview is given of both the technical components and the facility layout. Two of the treatment rooms will be equipped with a rotating isocentric irradiation unit. The design foresees the possibility of implementing, as a future development, acceleration of fully stripped light ions up to 16O to energies in the 120–400 MeV/u range.