The next generation of facilities for hadron therapy must be more compact, significantly more cost effective, and incorporate real time imaging, diagnostics and beam control.
The ideal facility should:
• Irradiate the tumour with minimal collateral radiation outside the target volume, and be capable of tracking moving tumours. This may require simultaneous imaging and particle treatment such as “MR proton”.
• Be affordable: This means reduced installation and operating costs, with an increase in patient through-put.
• Have a reduced area footprint for hospital considerations, including gantries and switching magnet efficiency to different rooms.
The requirements on the beam delivery will be crucial. In particular:
• Type(s) of particle(s)
• Beam dimensions, energies, required beam energies
• Beam scanning protocols, angular coverage (gantry), real-time feedback control of beam on tumour
• Real-time imaging requirements update rate, precision, and resolution.
Many of these requirements are inter-related. Some of these requirements may be obtained by consensus with the medical practitioners, but many will need theoretical developments and computer simulations followed by experimental testing
in test-bed facilities such as the proposed OPENMED. Most importantly the final specifications will have a crucial impact on the type of accelerator and gantries to be used.