CERN Accelerating science

Abstract

Radiotherapy is a mainstay of cancer treatment, using ionising radiation to damage the DNA of cancer cells. In most cases, a particle accelerator is used to generate a therapeutic beam. Conventional radiation therapy uses X-rays generated by a linac, and is widely available at relatively low cost. Hadrontherapy is a specific type of radiation therapy, which uses protons or other ions to provide a very conformal dose to the target volume in the treatment of many solid tumors. Nowadays it is often called particle therapy or heavy ion therapy. Hadrontherapy may also decrease the risk of adverse effects due to the reduced radiation dose to the normal tissues, especially for those tumors surrounded by radiosensitive organs. 

This first lecture will recap the principles and rationale of hadron therapy, and provide an overview of the clinical results obtained so far.

Bio - Sandro Rossi

Sandro Rossi is Director General of the National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy in Pavia, commissioned and financed by the Italian Ministry of Health with the purpose of treating oncological patients with innovative techniques based on the use of particle beams (protons and carbon ions). Sandro Rossi coordinated first as Technical Director and since 2008 as Director General, the design, construction and operation of the accelerators and the medical devices for the treatment of patients. More than 600 companies contributed to the construction of the facility for a total budget of about 170 million euros. More than 20 national and international institutions have provided qualified resources and skills to complement a project group which has now 170 people, including physicists, engineers, medical doctors, technicians, health care and administration operative staff. CNAO treated so far more than 4600 patients with very positive results and beamtime is also devoted to research activities with groups coming from all over the world. 

Since April 2021, Sandro Rossi is coordinator of the international project HITRIplus (Heavy Ion Therapy Research Integration plus), financed by the European Commission under grant number 101008584. HITRIplus is a multidisciplinary collaborative project aiming to integrate and advance biophysics and medical research in cancer treatment with heavy ions and in parallel jointly developing innovative technologies for the next generation tools. It gathers 23 Institutes from 14 European countries. 

During his career Sandro Rossi has published several scientific articles, is a member of committees and commissions, has been a speaker at many international conferences and has taught University courses in Physics and Particle Physics Applied to Medicine. He has been Scientific Associate at CERN to participate to the Proton-Ion Medical Machine Study (PIMMS) and has been Technical Director and board member of the TERA Foundation, Novara. 

Bio - Ester Orlandi:

Dr Ester Orlandi, MD has more than 20 years’ experience in radiation oncology and multidisciplinary management of cancers. She is currently the Director of the Clinical Department at CNAO and Senior Radiation Oncologist and Researcher at University of Pavia.
Since 2001 Dr Orlandi has had active interest in clinical and translational research, in the field of radiation oncology in particular for head and neck cancer. She is involved in Italian and international trials, currently she holds the role of principal investigator in 11 clinical trials to date. Since March 2020 up to today Dr Orlandi holds a role as core member of the Radiation Oncology, Scientific Council (ROSC) and she is member of the steering committee of the EORTC HN group, member of the ESMO educational HN group and member of the PTCOG HN subcommittee. Dr Orlandi also has an active teaching curriculum, holding a Lecturer position within the Radiotherapy Residency Program School at the University of Milan. She is the author and co-author of 6 book chapters and 200 scientific journal articles in impacted peer review journals.