Studies of the radiobiological response of human cell samples irradiated with laser-accelerated electron pulses

Radiotherapy is a mainstay of cancer treatment. More than 50 % of tumour patients in developed countries receive radiotherapy, either as the only method of treatment or as a crucial component in combination with surgery and/or systemic treatment. However, in many cases, especially for compact, deep-seated, radiation-resistant tumours growing in close vicinity to organs at risk, state-of-the-art radiotherapy which is based on photon or electron beams delivered by compact electron linear accelerators comes to its limits. Considerably improved conformance of radiation dose to the tumour volume with simultaneous preservation of surrounding healthy tissue will derive from utilization of ions whose favourable physical and radiobiological properties have already been demonstrated in clinical application [1, 2]. However, only a few ion therapy facilities are running worldwide, due to their complexity, large scale and high investment cost linked to present radiofrequency accelerator technology. Laser-based particle acceleration is a rapidly evolving new technology [3-9]. It promises the development of compact ion accelerators with reasonable costs, which may be integrated into existing hospitals since they are based on compact table-top multi-terawatt laser systems and the acceleration process takes place within micrometer distances. This novel technology appears to be a key that many more patients could benefit from ion radiotherapy and its favourable properties.