10 Sep Particle Accelerators Serving Society
Medical Applications
When one thinks of a particle accelerator, large equipment in laboratories dedicated to scientific research immediately comes to mind. The role of these machines in the study of basic science is certainly extremely important; however, they are also used for purposes closer to everyday life. Among the various applications of accelerators, the most significant are probably those related to medicine and cancer treatment.
Ion Beams Against Cancer
Accelerated ion beams are used to treat tumors not treatable with traditional techniques. INFN has been a pioneer in this field through the Center for Hadrontherapy and Advanced Nuclear Applications (CATANA), active since 2002 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and dedicated to the treatment of ocular melanomas with proton beams. Ion beam therapy (hadrontherapy), unlike conventional radiotherapy with X-rays, acts in a much more localized manner, preserving the healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. This is essential when acting on sensitive areas, such as the eye, where radiotherapy cannot be used because it would cause severe damage to brain tissues as well.
The CATANA proton beam is supplied by the superconducting cyclotron of the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and has an energy of 60 MeV, ideal for treating ocular melanomas. This therapy is the only alternative to surgery and, unlike the latter, allows vision to be preserved.
A Facility Dedicated to Patient Treatment
INFN’s experience in using ion beams for cancer treatment has resulted in the National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) in Pavia, the only center in Italy and one of 6 worldwide capable of delivering hadrontherapy treatments with protons and carbon ions. INFN has in fact designed and built the 80-meter-circumference synchrotron capable of accelerating protons up to 250 MeV and carbon ions up to 4800 MeV. The use of two different types of particles and the energies involved allow different types of tumors to be treated.
INFN and CNAO have signed an important agreement to conduct joint research aimed both at introducing treatments with additional ions and at developing innovative imaging and dosimetry systems.
FLASH Therapy and Beyond
The use of accelerators in medicine, however, does not stop at hadrontherapy. Within the ANTHEM project, an accelerator for Electron FLASH Therapy has been installed and tested at the Center for Advanced Preclinical in Vivo Research (CAPiR) of the University of Catania.
FLASH Therapy uses electron beams that concentrate radiation doses up to a thousand times higher than traditional radiotherapy in fractions of a second. In this way, it is possible to effectively treat a tumor while preserving the surrounding tissues from radiation damage. This is a procedure still under study, and the installation of this accelerator, the result of a collaboration between the University of Catania, Cannizzaro Hospital, CNR-IBSBC, and INFN’s Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, is fundamental for the development and validation of new therapeutic protocols.
Research on the topic also involves the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, where I-Luce will soon be available, an electron acceleration system based on high-power lasers that will enable work in ultra-FLASH mode, using electron beams of even higher intensity, thus paving the way for new tools in the fight against cancer.
Boron Neutron Capture Therapy
But the ANTHEM project is not limited to FLASH Therapy. Spoke 4, in which INFN is involved, has among its objectives the construction, at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, of a center for clinical research on Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), based on INFN technology for the production of high-flux neutron beams.
BNCT occurs in two phases: in the first, the patient takes a drug that binds to the tumor, concentrating large quantities of boron in it; in the second, the tumor is irradiated with a low-energy neutron beam.
Neutrons have a high probability of being captured by a boron isotope, boron-10, which transforms into boron-11 and then decays into a helium nucleus and a lithium nucleus. The energy produced by this reaction is absorbed in a very small volume, comparable to cellular dimensions, so it is possible in this way to use it to destroy the tumor, in which the drug has concentrated the boron, leaving the surrounding healthy tissues intact. This type of therapy is extremely selective and therefore allows the treatment of tumors resistant to therapies or close to tissues very sensitive to radiation, and also metastases.
In the past, the only neutron sources sufficiently intense available for BNCT were nuclear reactors modified for patient irradiation, whereas today neutron sources generated with particle accelerators are available. The center under construction in Campania involves the Pavia Section, the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, the Naples Section, and the Turin Section of INFN.
Not Only Treatments
The use of accelerators in medicine is not limited to direct patient treatment but is also fundamental for the production of radiopharmaceuticals.
The first step in creating a radiopharmaceutical is the production of the radioisotope, that is, the element that emits radiation, and it is precisely in this step that INFN’s contribution comes in, thanks to the SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) project, which aims to create at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro a unique facility both for basic research in nuclear science and for research on radioisotopes for medical purposes.
The SPES cyclotron accelerates protons up to 70 MeV with very high intensities, reaching 700 µA, and provides the beam for two research lines on medical radionuclides active at the Laboratori di Legnaro: direct activation and the ISOL technique.
The direct activation method consists of irradiating a dedicated target with proton beams, whose design is specifically optimized to produce the medical radionuclide of interest, which after bombardment must undergo a radiochemical process to extract and purify the medically relevant radioisotope from all the irradiated material.
In the ISOL technique, instead, the proton beam strikes a thick target of uranium carbide (UCx), generating a set of fission fragments, most of which are then released from the target thanks to the high working temperatures, generally above 2000 °C. The released nuclei are transformed into positive ions and extracted in a particle beam. A mass separator allows the desired isotope to be selected and collected.
Two examples are copper-67 and scandium-47, whose production methods from targets irradiated with a cyclotron are the subject of as many INFN patents.
Basic Research Serving Society
The applications of particle accelerators in the life sciences represent the fruits, often unexpected, of basic research. Investing in fundamental science is necessary to create the substrate of knowledge that leads to the creation of technologies that then generate positive impact on society. INFN conducts frontier research in physics and, through its technology transfer structures, works actively to ensure that research results have positive effects on people, society, and the economy.
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