ADVOCACY FOR A DEDICATED 70 MEV PROTON THERAPY FACILITY

Since 1998 we treated more then 1500 patients with eye tumours at the HZB cyclotron with a 68 MeV proton beam. The 5 years follow up shows a tumour control rate of more then 96%. The combination of a CT/MRT based planning and excellent physical beam conditions like 2 nA in the scattered proton beam, a 0.94 mm distal dose falloff and a dose penumbra of 2.1 mm offers the opportunity to keep side effects on a lowest level. However all new medical proton facilities are equipped with accelerators delivering beams of 230 MeV and more. While this is needed for deep seated tumours, a lot of physical and medical compromises have to be accepted for the treatment of shallow seated tumours like eye melanomas. Hence, we suggest a 70 MeV proton therapy facility. It should be equipped with a horizontal beam line and can have optionally a vertical line for more complicated cases under anaesthetics or for biological experiments. By the use of PBO-Lab and MCNPX beam line concepts and a radio-protecting architecture are designed.