Time has come for proton and carbon beam therapy

Excerpt

Yoichiro Umegaki, a pioneer of radiation oncology in Japan, proposed to start proton therapy with a cyclotron at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in 1971 for eye tumors and with a synchrotron at the Research Institute of High Energy Physics, Tsukuba (KEK) in 1973 for deep-seated tumors [1]. In 1978, he reported to the Government of Japan that “proton beam is the best for practical radiotherapy. Heavy ions should be studied for the purpose of further future development of particle radiotherapy” Hiroshi Tsunemoto, a successor to Umegaki, concluded that “In the future, we must go to protons and heavy ions” in 1982 [2]. …