Overview of Carbon-ion Therapy at NIRS: 15 Years Experience

In June 1994, the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) initiated heavy particle radiotherapyusing carbon ion beams obtained from the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) that was built aspart of the nation’s “Overall ten-year anti-cancer strategy in Japan” starting in 1984. The construction wascompleted at the end of 1993 (Fig.1) and the facility was opened for carbon ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT) in thefollowing year. Since then the HIMAC has been served as a multipurpose, shared facility jointly used for cancertherapy and for fundamental particle beam study by both Japanese and foreign researchers.C-ion RT has been carried out for various types of malignant tumors at NIRS. 1),2),3) It was approved from theMinistry of Health, Welfare and Labor as “Highly Advanced Medical Technology” in 2003. This means thatC-ion RT has meanwhile achieved for itself a solid place in general practice after clinical experiences of cancertherapy since the beginning of clinical trials at NIRS.The 4th Japanese-European Joint Symposium on Ion Cancer Therapy and KI-NIRS Joint Symposium on Ion-Radiation Science