Research conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers investigating the feasibility of gantry-less pencil-beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy was recently featured in Physics World. The study, published in The International Journal of Medical Physics Research and Practice, concluded that PBS provides sufficient power to deliver high-quality treatment plans without requiring a gantry for head-and-neck or brain tumors. The ability to deliver proton therapy without the use of a gantry reduces the capital cost of building a proton therapy center which could make proton therapy available to a larger patient population.
Compact treatment room: Model of a gantry-less proton therapy system, with a patient positioning chair and imaging system at the center. (Courtesy: Fernando Hueso-González)
