Indications of Caerbon Ion therapy at CNAO

CNAO will be a dual center capable of providing therapeutic beams of protons and carbon ions with maximum energy of 400 MeV/u. At the beginning, it will be equipped with three treatment rooms with fixed horizontal and vertical beam lines. In a subsequent phase, two more rooms with a rotating gantry are foreseen. An active spot scanning dose delivery system will be employed. Initially, 80% of the treatments will be carried out with carbon ions. All patients will be treated within clinical trials to assess carbon ion indications with an evidence-based methodology. Seven disease-specific working groups have been developed: lung tumors, liver tumors, sarcomas, head and neck tumors, central nervous system lesions, eye tumors and pediatric tumors. The last two groups will be treated mainly with protons. In the first phase, CNAO will focus on head and neck cancers, treating inoperable, residual or recurrent malignant salivary gland tumors, mucosal melanoma, adenocarcinoma and unfavorably located SCC (nasal and paranasal sinuses). Carbon ions will be employed as a boost in the treatment of locally advanced, poor prognosis, SCC of the hypopharynx and tongue base. Bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the extremity will be treated with a limb-sparing approach, and trunk sarcomas will be treated with exclusive or post-operative irradiation. Skull base tumors (chordoma and chondrosarcoma), recurrent or malignant meningioma and glial tumors will be treated with carbon ions. After sufficient expertise has been gained in coping with organ motion, CNAO will start treating thoracic and abdominal targets. HCC will be treated in inoperable patients with one or more lesions that can be included in a single CTV. Early stage NSCLC will be treated. In the second phase, two more groups on gynecological malignancies and digestive tumors (esophageal cancer, rectal cancer, pancreatic cancer) will be created.