From ion tracks to ion radiotherapy

This contribution describes the application of swift ion beams in cancer radiotherapy. We start with a discussion of the rationale for choosing light ions over protons or photons. We shortly describe the microscopic simulation of ion interaction with matter with the TRAX Monte Carlo code. The GSI radiotherapy pilot project uses a magnetic raster scanner and active energy variation to achieve dose conformation in 3-D. We describe the necessary steps for treatment planning such as beam modelling, absorbed dose and biological effectiveness calculation, dose optimisation and verification, as implemented in our TRiP98 treatment planning code. (author)