Speaker
Description
CNAO is one of the four centres in Europe, and six worldwide, offering treatment of tumours with both protons and carbon ions. Besides clinical activity, CNAO has also research and education as institutional purposes and for this reason in addition to the three treatment rooms, the CNAO center is equipped with an “experimental room” dedicated to experimental activities, which is also available to external researchers. Typical research subjects range from radiobiology to biophysics, from space research to detector development and basic nuclear physics.
The CNAO synchrotron provides energies between 115 and 400 MeV/u for carbon ions (corresponding to a Bragg peak depth of 3 to 27 cm in water) and between 63 and 227 MeV for protons (corresponding to a Bragg peak depth of 3 to 32 cm in water). An additional ion source was recently installed that will provide additional ion species (He, Li, O and Fe) for research and possibly for clinics in a second stage. Its commissioning will start at the beginning of 2024.
The experimental room is equipped with the same scanning system used in the treatment rooms and according to the needs of the experiment to be performed the experimental beamline can be arranged in four different configurations depending on the space required downstream the target or the dimensions of the scanning field. Furthermore, access to a biological laboratory with all the necessary equipment can be provided.
Finally an accelerator based BNCT facility is under construction that will provide an additional treatment modality.
