CERN and Hadron Therapy: common beginnings, or from physics to medical applications
by
Dr.Manjit Dosanjh
(CERN)
→
Europe/Madrid
Universe
Universe
Description
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. The challenging demand for particle physics has pushed the detector performance to very high limits both in terms of spatial and time resolution and the cross-fertilization between particle physics detectors and imaging tools is bringing real benefits to the medical field especially in diagnosis and treatment of disease. Accelerators are routinely used in hospitals for conventional cancer radiotherapy with X-rays as well as for the production of radioisotopes, which are used for diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The main aim of radiation therapy is to deliver a maximally effective dose of radiation to a designated tumour site, while sparing the surrounding healthy tissues. Hadron (particle) therapy allows highly conformal treatment of tumours while delivering lower doses to the surrounding healthy tissues and therefore shows great promise for effective treatment. In order to fully benefit from hadron therapy there is need for improved and more precise imaging both for detection and treatment.