The Advanced Cancer Therapy Foundationis a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization seeking to improve the treatment of cancer patients through new, advanced particle beam therapy. The Foundation will provide funds for highest level research activities in this exciting and promising new territory. For more information call: 505-983-7664 or e-mail info@advanced-cancer-therapy.org

What is particle beam cancer therapy?
Particle beam cancer therapy is a non-invasive method that utilizes protons, heavy ions, or antiprotons instead of surgery or x-rays to terminate cancer. Independent of a specific cancer type it can be used on all tumors with a defined shape.

What are the advantages of using particle beams?
Particle beams have the unique capability to deliver energy to a well defined location in the body with minimal impact to cells in the beam path in front of the target region, and with no effect to tissue behind the target region. This allows treatment of tumors close to critical and radiation sensitive organs, reducing side effects and the late occurrence of secondary tumors. Using modern imaging technology, some types of particles allow detecting the exact location of treatment from the outside of the patient’s body. For antiprotons this promises to result in true real-time imaging during therapy, giving direct feedback to the physician at time of treatment.

How does particle beam therapy work?
On an atomic scale the human body is amazingly empty. A beam of protons or ions entering the human body will at first deposit very little energy while continuing its path through this virtually empty space. Only electrical forces between the beam particles and the atoms in the human body will slow down the motion, and eventually the particle will stop. At this moment the majority of the energy is deposited. Where this happens can be chosen precisely by changing the initial velocity of the particles. This is in strong contrast to a beam of X-rays, where the energy deposited to the human cells is highest close to the surface, and then continues to decrease until the exit of the body. Particle beams, in contrast, deposit only a low dose in the entrance channel, the highest dose at the target area, and virtually zero dose beyond.

Which particles are used in advanced particle beam cancer therapy?
Up to now the particle of choice was the proton, the nucleus of a hydrogen atom. 40+ proton beam therapy centers exist and have to date treated more than 50,000 patients worldwide. In recent years research in Germany and in Japan has shown that carbon ions can have a much higher biological impact on cancer cells than protons and can therefore successfully treat tumors normally deemed “radio-resistant”. Carbon ion treatments have yielded significantly improved treatment results in many types of tumors. But up to now only 3000 patients have received Carbon ion treatments. Antiprotons, known to most of us only from science fiction, have already been shown to offer yet another increase of effective dose in the target area, have the potential to further decreasing the impact on healthy tissue in front of the tumor, and additionally would allow watching in real time where exactly inside the body the treatment is administered.

Our Mission?
Despite all the success achieved, particle beam cancer therapy is still an important and active area of fundamental research. Much work is still necessary to assure that the most effective treatment with the lowest achievable side effects can be offered to each and every specific case. The Advanced Cancer Therapy Foundation has made it to its primary goal to foster this work by providing financial support to scientists committed to making this non-invasive method of “surgery” available to patients in the US and the entire World.