All about Medical Treatment in Germany

Ion and proton therapy in Germany

In addition to the recently opened Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT), two other centers in Germany (in Marburg and in Kiel) will be offering combined proton and carbon ion treatment in the next three years. Another center in Munich, the Rinecker Proton Therapy Center (RPTC) began radiation treatment with protons in March 2009. The Westdeutsche Protonentherapiezentrum in Essen will follow in 2010. Recent progress in the area of ion and proton therapy in Germany and medical treatment in general is the result of key players working closely together. For the HIT project, for example, four prestigious institutes have been involved since the planning stage: the Department of Radiation Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital, the GSI Helmholtzzentrum for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, and the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. Moreover, HIT was implemented as a cooperation project between the Department of Radiation Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital and Siemens, which was responsible for the installation of the radiation units.