THE ITALIAN PROJECT FOR A HADRONTHERAPY CENTER

A feasibility study has just been completed for a hospital-based hadro ntherapy facility to be built in Italy. This facility aims at the trea tment of 1000 patients/year in 5 treatment rooms served by a H-/light ion synchrotron producing proton beams with energies ranging from 60 t o 250 MeV. Generation of neutron beams for boron neutron capture thera py and production of positron emitting radionuclides for PET diagnosti cs is also foreseen. After an account of the rationale for the use of hadron beams in radiation therapy, a brief overview is given of both t he technical components and the facility layout. Two of the treatment rooms will be equipped with a rotating isocentric irradiation unit. Th e design foresees the possibility of implementing, as a future develop ment, acceleration of fully stripped light ions up to O-16 to energies in the 120-400 MeV/u range.