Progresses towards laser-driven hadron cancer radiotherapy.

Hadron therapy is a very powerful technique for tumor treating; it can be used to irradiate tumor tissues with high doses and 3D spatial selectivity compared with traditional radiotherapy using electron and photon beams. The use of monoenergetic proton and carbon beams need of high energy accelerators, such as superconducting cyclotrons, adapt to generate protons at energies of the order of 100 MeV or more and suitable currents to extract the ion beam in the air and use it against the cancer cells. Recently rose a growing interest to generate proton and carbon beams using high-intensity lasers generating non-equilibrium plasma and high electric fields accelerating ions at the energies useful for hadron therapy. This equipment is less expensive with respect to huge accelerators and more versatile to be used in radiological clinics. Moreover, new technologies based on the use of biocompatible nanoparticles may improve the radiotherapy and defeat the tumor better. The present paper reports some data on the state of art and the current progress towards laser-driven hadron cancer therapy using advanced technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]