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Editorial
. 2019 Apr;120(8):777-778.
doi: 10.1038/s41416-018-0329-x. Epub 2018 Dec 11.

Proton beam therapy in Europe: more centres need more research

Marco Durante  1   2
Affiliations
Editorial

Proton beam therapy in Europe: more centres need more research

Marco Durante. Br J Cancer. 2019 Apr.
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Particle therapy exploits a favourable depth–dose curve. Charged particles deposit most of their initial energy when they slow down, close to the end of the range (Bragg peak) within the tumour target, while X-ray energy decreases exponentially with dose. Particles at high energy (entrance, normal tissue) have linear energy transfer (LET) similar to X-rays, while the LET becomes high when the ions slow down around the Bragg peak. This provides radiobiological advantages such as an increased relative biological effectiveness (RBE) and reduced oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) in the tumour
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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