Abstract
It has been known for about sixty years that proton and heavy ion therapy is a very powerful radiation procedure for treating tumors. It has an innate ability to irradiate tumors with greater doses and spatial selectivity compared with electron and photon therapy and, hence, is a tissue sparing procedure. For more than twenty years, powerful lasers have generated high energy beams of protons and heavy ions and it has, therefore, frequently been speculated that lasers could be used as an alternative to radiofrequency (RF) accelerators to produce the particle beams necessary for cancer therapy. The present paper reviews the progress made towards laser driven hadron cancer therapy and what has still to be accomplished to realize its inherent enormous potential.
Highlights
The history of innovative laser applications demonstrates its ubiquitous character
Since this is a review of progress toward laser-driven radiotherapy it is useful to know if and how the biological effect of particle radiation generated by lasers differs from that provided by conventional accelerators
Before discussing in detail where we are with laser driven ion beams for oncology, we comment briefly on possible controversies concerning the effectiveness of ion beam radiotherapy in general
Summary
Bolton 3, Naoya Shikazono 4 and C.-M. SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G40NG, Scotland, UK. Received: 18 June 2014; in revised form: 1 August 2014 / Accepted: 4 August 2014 /
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