Progress of the Proton-Ion Medical Machine Study (PIMMS)

The Proton-Ion Medical Machine Study (PIMMS) was set up following an agreement between Professor M. Regler of the Med-AUSTRON (Austria) and Professor U. Amaldi of the TERA Foundation (Italy) to join their efforts in the design of a medical synchrotron that could later be adapted to individual national needs. CERN agreed to host this study inside its PS Division and to contribute one full-time member to the study team. The study group has worked in collaboration with GSI (Germany) and was more recently joined by Onkologie 2000 (Czech Republic). Work started in January 1996 and is expected to finish during 1998. The agreed aim of the study was to investigate and design a generic facility that would allow the direct clinical comparison of protons and carbon ions for cancer treatment. The accelerator was to be designed primarily for high-precision active beam scanning with both protons and ions, but was also to be capable of delivering proton beams with passive spreading.