More Ions for Radiotherapy: About Treatment Planning and Track Simulations

While scanned beams of protons and carbon ions are now standard in advanced ion beam radiotherapy sites, there is an increasing interest in additional modalities such as helium and oxygen beams. Helium could turn out as an alternative to protons due to its lower lateral Coulomb scattering. Its lower RBE could be attractive particularly for the treatment of pediatric tumours. On the other end of the LET scale, oxygen is a promising candidate for treatments which require a very high LET, for example hypoxic environments [2,3].