CATANA protontherapy facility: The state of art of clinical and dosimetric experience

G. Cuttone; G. A. P. Cirrone; G. Di Franco; V. La Monaca; S. Lo Nigro; J. Ott; S. Pittera; G. Privitera; L. Raffaele; A. Reibaldi; F. Romano; M. G. Sabini; V. Salamone; M. Sanfilippo; C. Spatola; L. M. Valastro

doi:10.1140/epjp/i2011-11065-1

EPJ

CATANA protontherapy facility: The state of art of clinical and dosimetric experience

G. Cuttone¹, G. A. P. Cirrone¹^*, G. Di Franco², V. La Monaca², S. Lo Nigro³, J. Ott², S. Pittera¹, G. Privitera², L. Raffaele², A. Reibaldi², F. Romano¹, M. G. Sabini¹^,4, V. Salamone², M. Sanfilippo², C. Spatola² and L. M. Valastro¹^,4

¹ Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, INFN, Catania, Italy
² Azienda Ospedaliera Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele, Catania, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
⁴ Azienda Ospedaliera Cannizzaro, Catania, Italy

Received: 22 April 2011
Accepted: 1 July 2011
Published online: 21 July 2011

Abstract

After nine years of activity, about 220 patients have been treated at the CATANA Eye Protontherapy facility. A 62MeV proton beam produced by a Superconducting Cyclotron is dedicated to radiotherapy of eye lesions, as uveal melanomas. Research and development work has been done to test different dosimetry devices to be used for reference and relative dosimetry, in order to achieve dose delivering accuracy. The follow-up results demonstrated the efficacy of proton beams and encouraged us in our activity in the fight against cancer.