Clinical research on tumor treatment with heavy ion beam

This article reviews the advantages of heavy ion in physical, biological and clinical aspects, discusses the radio-biological basis of experiment research, and summarizes clinical results of heavy ion beam treatment on tumor at home and abroad. Japan has accepted and treated about 6000 cancer patients of different types with high local control rates and survival ones. Germany has achieved great success in head and neck tumor clinical treatment. Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMP-CAS), Tumor Hospital of Gansu Province and Lanzhou General Hospital of PLA have begun clinical trial on heavy ion treatment of deep-seated tumors after the shallow-seated tumor therapy has been done at HIRFL (Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou). The treatment results of Tumor Hospital of Gansu Province show that the objective response rate (CR + PR) is 71.4% and the rate of l-2 levels radiation injury to skin reactions (erythema and desquamation) is 61.9% when we evaluate the 43 patients by means of imaging. The results of case follow-up after treatment in l month indicate that the deep-seated tumor therapy with heavy ion beam has high local control rates without severe adverse effect. (authors)