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Updated: Oct 5, 2025
Preparing an Isotopically Pure 229Th Ion Beam for Studies of 229mTh
Published on: May 3, 2019
The history of ion beam therapy in Germany
Oliver Jäkel1, Gerhard Kraft2, Christian P Karger3
1Department of Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT) at the University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology (NCRO), Heidelberg Institute for Radiation Oncology (HIRO), Heidelberg, Germany.
Abstract:
The advantageous depth dose profile of ion beams together with state of the art beam delivery and treatment planning systems allow for highly conformal tumor treatments in patients. First treatments date back to 1954 at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) and in Europe, ion beam therapy started in the mid-1990s at the Paul-Scherrer Institute (PSI) with protons and at the Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) with carbon ions, followed by the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center (HIT) in Heidelberg. This review describes the historical development of ion beam therapy in Germany based on the pioneering work at LBL and in the context of simultaneous developments in other countries as well as recent developments.
