The Medical Physics research group (FMF UL, UMC, IO, JSI), together with Cosylab d.d. and research partners from major hadron therapy centres around the world, obtained funding from the European Commission for the RAPTOR initiative, and the European Training Network (MSCA ETN) in the field of hadron therapy for the introduction of innovative methods for reliable cancer treatment using hadron therapy.
Hadron therapy is an advanced radiotherapy method. As with all radiotherapies, hadron therapy attacks cancer cells using ionising radiation. Ionising radiation can consist of various particles – from electromagnetic radiation known as gamma radiation, electron radiation or beta radiation, to light-nuclei radiation and helium particle radiation, known as alpha radiation. Conventional radiation therapy employs gamma radiation, photons whose losses in matter are well described by the exponential curve. This means that the radiation dose will be highest where the radiation enters the body. As tumours are usually hidden deep in the body, a good portion of the dose is received by otherwise healthy tissues. This problem is solved by hadron therapy.
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