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From research conducted at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Ion beams to combat cancer

The GSI has played a leading role in the development of carbon ion therapies for tumours. A team led by Professor Gerhard Kraft discovered that charged carbon atoms can be controlled so precisely that they can penetrate tissue with little damage to the surrounding area and release their energy within the targeted tumour.

Photo ion beam laboratory
Physicists use the DRACO high-power laser at the HZDR to accelerate protons with laser light. Photo/Graphic: HZDR/J.Loesel.

The GSI experts have helped construct a customised acceleration facility for tumour treatments at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT), where 1,300 patients can be treated annually. However, this kind of therapy still relies on a ring accelerator with a diameter of 20 metres and a weight of several hundred tonnes in order to generate the required ion beam. Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, led by Professor Ulrich Schramm, are now investigating the possibility of accelerating protons with the help of high-power lasers. Their aim is to develop a process in which ultra-short light impulses shoot particles out of a wafer-thin foil. Using the DRACO high-power laser, the team irradiated the first cancer cells with laser-accelerated protons and examined the biological impact of the protons. “We estimate that it will take around eight years to develop a prototype,” says Schramm.

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