Visit to proton therapy centre in Trento
In June 2017, OMA Fellow Giulia Aricó, together with some of her colleagues from CERN working on the development and applications of the FLUKA Monte Carlo code, visited the proton therapy centre in Trento, Italy.
Potentialities and benefits of radiotherapy treatments with charged particles are becoming more evident in the last decades and the interest on these technologies is growing fast. The main advantage of charged particle beams with respect to photons is the possibility of better conforming the dose (energy/mass) to the target. Therefore, tumour eradication can be obtained with less damage to the healthy organs surrounding the tumour.
The therapy centre in Trento started its operation in 2014 and since then about 350 patients, both adult and children, have been treated. This centre is the first one in Italy that provides cancer treatments using isocentric (i.e. with gantry) proton irradiation.
The CERN group was kindly welcomed by the head of the Proton Medical Physics Department, Dr. Marco Schwarz, and his team. The visit, which lasted 2 days, included a tour of the facility, treatment rooms and experimental room. In addition, an overview of the patient treatment flow, technologies employed, as well as new techniques under development, was provided.
The visit was also complemented by interesting discussions on recent and foreseen improvements of the treatment planning systems and the role of Monte Carlo codes as tools for dose calculation and validation.
The visit was highly informative and motivating for Giulia. It allowed her to gain a deeper knowledge on the last developments related to proton therapy, and to take a closer look at the practical applications and clinical aspects of radiation therapy.