高國慶院長'高御尊醫師'高御龍電商 高御書生化營養師[收集資訊交流站]美兆醫療專家

Proton Therapy System

The Proton Therapy System is a particle therapy against cancer using proton beam, which minimizes useless irradiation towards adjacent normal tissues and concentrates its doses on the lesion. Even for a lesion which is located in a place nearly inaccessible by the conventional radiotherapy, proton radiation allows to give a sufficient dose, and thus to eradicate a wider range of lesions than is possible with the conventional photon radiotherapy. This technology contributes to improvement of QOL (Quality of Life) and is applied forfor clinical use.

Proton is one of charged particle and proton beam has an effect that increases with deeper penetration, eventually reaching a high peak (the "Bragg peak") before rapidly dropping to zero. It is also possible to vary the width of the peak in accordance with the extent of the lesion (spread-out Bragg peak, "SOBP") and the planned dose can be irradiated accurately.

Comparison of Proton with X-ray	Spread-out Bragg peak SOBP

In 1954, the first treatment by proton beam on human diseases was put into effect. Since then, patients totaling 70,000 or more have received proton radiotherapy to date at many institutes in the world, mainly in Europe and the U.S. It was second case in the world, where the proton therapy system dedicated to medical use was manufactured and installed by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd at National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan, in 1998. following Loma Linda University Medical Center, U.S.A.

Gantry Treatment Room	Fixed Port Treatment Room

Accelerator Room (Cyclotron and Energy Selection System)	Accelerator Control Computer

1. Accelerator 
   Proton is accelerated by a cyclotron, which was developed by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, upto energy of 230 MeV, which reaches 32cm depth in the human body. The cyclotron can produce high energy and continuous beam and easy operation by a single button is available.

   Conventional gantry	Short length gantry

    

2. Irradiation Equipment 
   Rotational gantry can make irradiation available at any angle in the patient room It is easy to correspond to respiratory gating owing to continuous beam by the cyclotron. A fixed beam room is provided for treatment of head and neck tumor. Double interlock system assures safety operation of this system.

3. Simple design 
   The cyclotron is a simple and a compact design. It features the stable and easy operation with less maintenance.