The National Center for Oncological hadrontherapy (Cnao) treats rare forms of tumors with particles at 200,000 km per second. Now a new accelerator and new sources: more hope for cancer patients
You enter a room the size of a hangar that houses the sincrotronea gigantic machine with a diameter of 25 meters and 80 in circumference, formed by a series of magnets, a linear accelerator (Linac) and various instruments. It seems to be at Cern, and indeed the operation of the synchrotron is similar. The difference is that you are in Pavia and not in Geneva, the particles are accelerated up to 200,000 kilometers per second, about 60% of the speed of light almost reached at CERN, and was not designed to break the fundamental components of matter to recreate the conditions that existed at the Big Bang, but to treat rare forms of cancer.
Unique in Italy, only six in the world
Unique in Italy to use protons and carbon ionsonly five other similar plants worldwide, the Cnao (National Center for Oncological hadrontherapy) is now planning the expansion with new rooms and especially with new sources of particles to increase the possibilities of cure. “At the end of the year in the new experimental room built together with theNational Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn) we will have the opportunity to use helium, oxygen and heavier ions, up to ironnot only in the clinical field but also for industrial research “, explains al Courier Sandro Rossi, director general of Cnao.
Adroterapia
Hadrontherapy (which uses hadrons, that is atomic particles other than electrons and photons, started operating in 2011) more effective on tumor tissues) entered the National Health Service and today about fifty patients are treated a day in the center of Pavia. “Hadrontherapy uses different energies than traditional X-ray radiotherapy,” explains Ester Orlandi, head of the Cnao clinical department. ‘Protons and carbon ions can more selectively irradiate tumor tissue reducing the dose to surrounding healthy tissues“. The possibility of using new sources will guarantee an even more personalized clinical approach.
The near future
“Now three horizontal and one vertical fixed beams arrive in the treatment rooms,” adds Rossi. “We will install a smaller proton-only accelerator, with one machine that rotates around the patient that will allow you to hit the tumor in any direction“. Another project will move Cnao’s level of excellence even further, making it unique in the world. “We will use a very intense beam of neutronswhich will hit the boron-10 atoms selectively released by new types of drugs now available (carrier) on individual tumor cells. The boron atom, by absorbing the neutron, breaks down and generates very destructive particles over a distance of cellular size. So you can only kill the cell that contains the boron, saving healthy tissues. It’s a treatment that can be used for particularly complex and widespread tumors».
Three sources for more targeted treatments
Cnao will be the only hadrotherapy center in the world to use three different sources: protons, carbon ions and Boron Neutron Capture
Therapy (Bnct). Until a few years ago, similar quantities of neutrons (a flux of 1 billion neutrons per square centimeter per second over a period of 30 minutes) could only be obtained inside nuclear reactors, but the accelerator technology has developed to the point that today very intense neutron beams are available with very compact accelerating machines. “At the end of 2023 the new proton accelerator and that of Bnct will be installed for the experimental treatment of complex radioresistant tumors”, specifies Dr. Orlandi. At Cnao they specialize in the treatment of rare tumors (with an incidence of less than 6% of total cancers) and difficult to fight with traditional radio- and chemotherapy, with particular emphasis on pediatric and head / neck cancers, close to vital organs. The new projects represent more hope for cancer patients.
May 18, 2022 (change May 18, 2022 | 17:47)
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