Charged particles can achieve better dose distribution and higher biological effectiveness compared to photon radiotherapy. Carbon ions are considered an optimal candidate for cancer treatment using particles. The National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) in Chiba, Japan was the first radiotherapy hospital dedicated for carbon ion treatments in the world. Since its establishment in 199...

Medical physics is very important in carbon ion radiotherapy, as it is in conventional radiotherapy using X-rays and in estimation of exposed dose in the space environment. High-energy ion beams such as carbon beams have physical characteristics such as the Bragg curve, high LET, and nuclear reactions producing fragmentations. Therefore, understanding these properties well is essential for furt...

BACKGROUND Basal cell adenocarcinoma accounts for approximately 1.6% of all salivary gland neoplasms. In this report, we describe our experiences of treatment for BCAC with carbon ion radiotherapy in our institution. METHODS Case records of 6 patients with diagnosis of basal cell adenocarcinoma of the head and neck, who were treated by carbon ion radiotherapy with 64.0 GyE/16 fractions in our...

The carbon-ion radiotherapy (RT) with HIMAC has been conducted since 1994, and the accumulated treatment number exceeded 9,000 in May 2014. During the last two decades, NIRS has developed both the accelerator and beam-delivery technologies related to the carbon-ion RT, which has brought several carbon-ion RT facilities in Japan. At present, NIRS has developed a carbon-ion rotating gantry with t...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the cytotoxic effect of carbon ion radiotherapy and chemotherapy in glioblastoma cells in vitro. METHODS AND MATERIALS The human glioblastoma (GBM) cell line U87 was irradiated with photon radiotherapy (RT) doses of 2 Gy, 4 Gy and 6 Gy. Likewise, irradiation with carbon ions was performed with single carbon doses of 0.125, 0.5, 2 and 3 Gy. Four chemotherapeutic substanc...

Carbon ion radiotherapy has recently emerged as an alternative choice of treatment for malignant tumors of the head and neck. However, it is still in the infant stages and its influence on subsequent salvage surgery remains unclear. Here we report the case of a 43-year-old woman who underwent salvage surgery for left frontal bone osteosarcoma recurrence following carbon ion radiotherapy. Tumor ...

BACKGROUND Sacral chordoma (SC) is a neoplasm arising from residual notochordal cells degeneration. SC is difficult to manage mainly because of anatomic location and tendency to extensive spread. Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) is highly precise to selectively deliver high biological effective dose to the tumor target sparing the anatomical structure on its path even if when SC is contiguous to ...

Objective. To evaluate the treatment outcome and prognostic factors in patients with sinonasal malignant tumors invading skull base. Study Design and Setting. A retrospective clinical study at the Yamagata University School of Medicine. Subjects and Methods. Three patients with sinonasal malignant tumors invading skull base were presented in present study. All patients were treated with carbon ...

Radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer is undergoing an evolution, shifting to the use of heavier ion species. For a plethora of malignancies, current radiotherapy using photons or protons yields marginal benefits in local control and survival. One hypothesis is that these malignancies have acquired, or are inherently radioresistant to low LET radiation. In the last decade, carbon ion radioth...