Cancer Therapy with Heavy Particles

Conventional radiotherapy techniques for the treatment of malignant tumors are known to carry some risk as a method of combatting cancerous cells. The damage caused to healthy tissue as a part of these treatments poses a significant obstacle to overcome in the fields of radiobiology and oncology. The use of linear particle accelerators and cyclotrons to generate beams of charged radioactive particles for use in cancer therapy has been developed over recent years, and new and more effective cancer treatments such as hadron therapy have been made possible because of experimental particle physics and hold the promise of greater survival rates for patients. The effectivity of such particle physics based treatments is discussed here, and potential new treatments explored.