Field of cancer research continues to expand: new Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Institute of Radiooncology opens

Press release published on December 20, 2012

January 1, 2013, will see the inauguration of the brand-new Institute of Radiooncology at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Cancer researcher Prof. Michael Baumann, head of radiation therapy and oncology at University Hospital Dresden as well as an OncoRay Center spokesman, will serve as the Institute's new director.

"The new Institute of Radiooncology will help move cancer research in Dresden forward. We are determined to hit the ground running with the goal of continuing to expand the field of radiation therapy, working closely with our Helmholtz Association colleagues," explains Prof. Roland Sauerbrey, HZDR's scientific director. At the Dresden Helmholtz Center, biologists, chemists, physicists, and physicians are all engaged in the study and treatment of different types of cancer. They conduct research on radioactive substances and drugs while continuing to refine visualization methods and investigating new kinds of highly-precise radiation techniques as well as novel kinds of radiation treatments including laser-accelerated proton beams.

Moderne Strahlentherapie in Dresden
The goal of the collaboration between the HZDR's new Institute of Radiooncology and its OncoRay Center partners is to help advance the current field of cancer therapy through biologically individualized and technologically optimized radiation treatment.
Photo: André Wirsig
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"Together with the Dresden Clinic for Radiation Therapy and Radiooncology, the new Institute will help focus HZDR's radiation research at the Dresden OncoRay Center," explains Prof. Michael Baumann, the Institute's new director. Since 2005, the HZDR, the TU Dresden, and the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital Dresden have been collaborating in the field of radiation research as part of the Dresden OncoRay Center in an effort to help improve cancer radiation therapy. "The new institute is a milestone in our collaboration whose ultimate goal is the creation of a uniquely powerful research infrastructure in the field of radiation oncology right here in Dresden," adds the cancer researcher.

The long-term goal of radiation research in oncology in Dresden is to help improve cancer therapy by biologically individualizing and technologically optimizing radiation treatment. The researchers' and physicians' vision is to make radiation more precise, identify more focused ways of targeting tumors, and to better protect the surrounding healthy tissue than is currently possible.

The Institute of Radiooncology is made up of four separate departments. The Institute staff will be working out of the new OncoRay building, construction of which is currently under way on the University Hospital campus and which will house a proton therapy facility for treating malignant tumors.


For additional information
Prof. Michael Baumann
via Dr. Ulrike Koch
Clinic and Poly-Clinic of Radiation Therapy and Radiation Oncology
Phone (49) 351 458-2596 

Press Contact
Dr. Christine Bohnet
HZDR Press Spokesperson
Phone (49) 351 260-2450