Accelerators for America’s Future Workshop

Abstract

"Medicine and Biology" was one of five working groups of the "Accelerators for America's Future" Workshop held October 2009. The recently-released workshop report stresses that the leadership position of the United States in fields where accelerators play an important part is being seriously eroded because of lack of coordinated agency support for accelerator research and development. This is particularly true for biology and medicine. Radiation therapy with beams of protons and light ions was pioneered in the United States and has proven successful in the treatment of several different tumor sites in the body. Proton therapy is available in the United States in a number of centers; however, all but one contain accelerator and beam-delivery components manufactured abroad. Light-ion therapy is only available overseas. Why has the United States lost its lead in this field? The Working Group noted that in other countries, central governments are subsidizing construction and technology development by their industries, whereas in the United States funding for purchasing and building clinical facilities must be raised from private sources. As a result, most proton facilities in the United States, by virtue of having to recover investment costs, favor reimbursable treatments, detracting from the development of research protocols. The financial hurdle for starting a light-ion facility in the United States has been totally prohibitive for the private-equity market. While technological advances are being made that will provide some reduction in capital costs, the field will not flourish in the United States until effective funding means are developed that do not put the full burden on the private sector.