[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6215\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EAntimatter, gamma rays help steer giant cancer-killing machines\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGiant particle accelerators are best known for hunting exotic particles and probing the laws of physics, but they can also be used to treat cancer using a technique called hadron therapy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe technology hit newspaper headlines around the world in 2014 when Britons Brett and Naghmeh King took their son Ashya from a UK hospital and fled abroad in order for him to have hadron therapy, which was not available in Britain to treat his brain cancer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHadron therapy relies on charged atoms that have been accelerated in vacuum rings to pack a punch of over 10 million electronvolts. The high velocity gives hadrons the extraordinary ability to fly through several centimetres of solid matter before stopping abruptly at a designated target area.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhereas X-rays used in conventional radiotherapy damage healthy and cancerous tissue alike as they journey through the body, hadron beams seep harmlessly through skin and vital organs, blasting almost all their energy into the tumour.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018One of the beauties of hadron therapy is that, by sparing the healthy tissue, you can also avoid long-term side-effects,\u2019 said Professor Manjit Dosanjh, a biologist working at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver 100 000 cancer patients have already been treated by hadron therapy, and advances in the field could spread its merits to many more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe problem is that, while the energy of the particle beam can be controlled precisely, the density of the target cannot. Natural variations in human tissue can result in the beam diving further than planned into the body and destroying healthy cells.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnlike X-rays, the body does not reemit hadrons after they have delivered their payload, offering few indications as to where they landed.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018The result is like taking all the sunlight shining down on earth and briefly focusing it on a pinhead.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003ELuca Stockhausen, PhD student at CLPU in Salamanca, Spain\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers on the ENVISION project, coordinated by Prof. Dosanjh, are working around this problem by checking for by-products of the collision process \u2013 gamma radiation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBombarded tissue sometimes emits high-energy photons which form gamma rays. Among the technologies developed during the project, one partner patented a gamma ray camera with a novel slit geometry that is now being tested at hadron therapy centers in Dresden and Philadelphia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAntimatter\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESometimes the interaction between the hadron beam and cancerous cells also releases antimatter particles called positrons. Positrons rapidly annihilate against nearby electrons in a signature flash of gamma rays that fly off in opposite directions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers have worked out a way of using a PET scanner to pick this up, but only after modifying the way it works.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The big challenge is to fire a hadron beam through the PET scanner during the measurements,\u2019 said Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie grantee Dr Giancarlo Sportelli, at the University of Pisa, who also took part in the EU-funded ENVISION project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This produces gamma rays all over the place and swamps the signal in background noise.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPET scanners have been around for decades to detect the origin of gamma ray pairs and map body parts in 3D medical diagnostics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Sportelli and his colleagues replaced analogue parts in the scanner with digital ones, optimised data processing algorithms, and designed new modular detectors that can follow millions of gamma rays per second.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe adjustments are making it possible to distinguish spurious observations and could ultimately pinpoint the beam tip to within millimeters inside the patient\u2019s body.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ciframe src=\u0022https:\/\/europa.eu\/webtools\/crs\/iframe\/?oriurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FwgwDJiTYDI0\u0022 frameborder=\u00220\u0022 width=\u0022560\u0022 height=\u0022315\u0022\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EOver 100 000 cancer patients have been treated by hadron therapy.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/span\u003EVideo Credit: CERN\/ENLIGHT\/ENVISION\/ENTERVISION\/PARTNER\/ULICE\/Nymus3d\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELasers\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother hurdle for hadron therapy is the size and cost of the machines. One way to solve this is by using lasers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s something that\u2019s being helped by the efforts of the EU-funded LA3NET Initial Training Network, coordinated by Professor Carsten Welsch at the University of Liverpool.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We are training young scientists to interface between laser and particle accelerator technology,\u2019 said Prof. Welsch.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollaboration between these fields could prove a game changer in reducing the scale and price of the hadron accelerators\u003Cstrong\u003E.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELuca Stockhausen, a LA3NET graduate student at the CLPU Pulsed Lasers Centre in Salamanca, Spain, is developing techniques to thrust beams of hadrons with lasers instead of particle accelerators.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis trick is to concentrate the laser over split-second pulses and microscopic spots on a metal surface.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The result is like taking all the sunlight shining down on earth and briefly focusing it on a pinhead,\u2019 said \u003Cspan\u003EStockhausen\u003C\/span\u003E. The beam sublimates the metal, stripping electrons from their atoms and propelling their nuclei at speeds comparable to those of the hadrons used to treat eye tumours today.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EReaching the maximal power and the reproducibility of conventional particle accelerators may still require years of research, but Prof. Welsch is convinced that the prospects are worth the effort.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018At present, particle accelerators for hadron therapy are bulky and expensive,\u2019 he said. \u2018With the right advances, lasers could make them smaller and more affordable.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-mvtr-wduucghqsnvl7knskuavc6fk7vhu25lhxyt0by\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-mvtR-wdUUcgHqsNvl7KnSKuAvC6fK7VHu25lhxYT0BY\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]