Darmstadt/Heidelberg – Ten years after the first use of ion-beam therapy for a cancer patient, the globally unique method of the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI =society for heavy ion research) in Darmstadt is about to be applied on a wide clinical basis. "In May 2008, the first patient will be treated in the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Centre (HIT)", said scientific director of the centre Thomas Haberer in Darmstadt on Thursday. The first equipment for ion radiation therapy was developed by the GSI and, in future, is to be used for treating more than 1000 patients a year.

The therapeutic method which is "precise, highly effective and has very few side effects" according to the GSI has been recognised as a healing method for certain skull tumours. A study of its effectiveness against prostate cancer and spinal tumours is currently being conducted. "So far, we have saved the lives of 400 people with this cancer therapy ", said scientific director of the GSI, Horst Stöcker. In his estimation, 50,000 people with previously inoperable tumours could be cured every year in the central European area alone. But to do this, 10 centres would have to be built in Germany and 50 throughout Europe. "It is a scandal that hardly anyone knows about this method." The GSI is a centre of basic research and is financed by the federal government and the state of Hessen.

Around 150 million euros is being invested in the HIT. "That sounds expensive but, given the large number of patients and a cure rate of 90 per cent with practically no side-effects, it is only a question of time until the method has been introduced all over the world", said Stöcker. According to Haberer, the HIT will also do research into new indications for cancer therapy with heavy ions. In the medium term, tumours in moving organs such as lungs or the liver should also be responsive to this therapy. Moreover, the new method costs around 17,500 euros per patient and is therefore less expensive than an operation (20,000 euros), chemotherapy (30,000 euros) or bone marrow transplantation (75,000).   

The treatment involves accelerating carbon ions to around 50 per cent of the speed of light. In just a few seconds, they travel 50,000 kilometres before being fired at the tumour. Ion beams develop their greatest effect deep inside the tissue and can be directed at tumours with millimetre accuracy, while the surrounding tissue is hardly affected at all. 

Source: dpa/lsw