Ricerc@Sapienza

Proton and carbon ion beams are used in the clinical practice for external radiotherapy treatments
achieving, for selected indications, promising and superior clinical results with respect to x-ray based
radiotherapy. Other ions, like 4 He have recently been considered as projectiles in particle therapy centres
and might represent a good compromise between the linear energy transfer and the radiobiological
effectiveness of 12 Cion and proton beams, allowing improved tumour control probability and

Nowadays there is a growing interest in particle therapy treatments exploiting
light ion beams against tumors due to their enhanced relative biological
effectiveness and high space selectivity. In particular promising results are
obtained by the use of 4He projectiles. Unlike the treatments performed
using protons, the beam ions can undergo a fragmentation process when
interacting with the atomic nuclei in the patient body. In this paper the results
of measurements performed at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy center are