First Protons, Then Anti-Protons--Now Carbon Ion Beams Treat Inoperable Cancer

Since 1990, proton beam therapy has been utilised in the treatment of prostate cancer and other malignancies. Recently anti-proton beam therapy has been available in limited locations. Now carbon ion beams have been studied in Heidelberg for the treatment of spinal tumours and brain tumours.

The carbon-ion therapy accelerates ions to up to 73 per cent of the speed of light in a synchrotron - a machine similar to the particle accelerator at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland - before beams are fired into patients' cancerous cells.

Dr Juergen Debus, the chief radiologist at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Centre (HIT) in Germany, where the treatment will first be available, claimed the process turned the carbon ions into "miniature precision-guided missiles" that can destroy cancer cells with pin-point accuracy.

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The use of ion beams for treating cancer and other diseases is still in its relative infancy. Carbon ions seem likely material for such use, but other ionic materials may prove even more useful in targeted killing of unwanted cells and tissues.