Heavy-Ion Therapy at GSI

The goal of the Heavy-Ion Therapy at GSI is to realize a 3-D target-conform irradiation of irregular volumes according to a treatment plan that optimizes the biological effect instead of the dose and uses the special toxity of high LET radiation for otherwise radioresistant tumors. Therefore, a novel beam delivery system, the intensity controlled rasterscan, has been developed and installed in a medical irradiation area at the heavy-ion accelerator SIS of GSI. A medical annex, containing rooms for patients and physicians, completes the treatment facility. For the biology-based treatment planning, special modules have been added to the existing planning system Voxelplan of DKFZ that adapt the photon planning system to the precision of a particle irradiation and that exploit the variation of the relative biological efficiency over the target volume. After the completion of the therapy unit and after a test phase, therapy could start at GSI in December 1997.