HIMAC 25th Anniversary Lecture Meeting: Heavy ion beam cancer therapy. From HIMAC to 'quantum scalpel' aiming for a zero cancer death healthy longevity society

HIMAC (heavy ion medical accelerator in Chiba), the world's first accelerator of its kind, was completed in 1993, and the supply of carbon ion beams for therapy was started in 1994. In 1995, the development of a respiration synchronizing irradiation system was started to accurately irradiate the organs such as the lungs and liver that move with respiration. Heavy ion beam radiotherapy using the respiration synchronizing irradiation system was started in June 1996, and its application target was extended to the entire trunk. Its clinical application was started in 2005 after implementing safety function enhancements. In addition, an ECR ion source using a 10 GHz microwave was successfully improved to almost maintenance-free type, and has been used in supply for daily treatment. In addition, a time sharing acceleration function was added to the injector so that the beams of different ion species or energies became possible to be simultaneously supplied to two experimental beamlines from two synchrotrons. One of the main goals of the next-generation device development is the development of ultra-small heavy ion beam therapy device (quantum scalpel) that can be installed in medium-sized hospitals. The quantum scalpel is aimed to have a device size that can be installed in the space of two X-ray treatment rooms at a general hospital. (A.O.)