AUTHOR=Cirrone Giuseppe A. P. , Cuttone Giacomo , Raffaele Luigi , Salamone Vincenzo , Avitabile Teresio , Privitera Giuseppe , Spatola Corrado , Amico Antonio G. , Larosa Giuseppina , Leanza Renata , Margarone Daniele , Milluzzo Giuliana , Patti Valeria , Petringa Giada , Romano Francesco , Russo Andrea , Russo Antonio , Sabini Maria G. , Schillaci Francesco , Scuderi Valentina , Valastro Lucia M. 

TITLE=Clinical and Research Activities at the CATANA Facility of INFN-LNS: From the Conventional Hadrontherapy to the Laser-Driven Approach

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2017.00223

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2017.00223

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=The CATANA protontherapy center was the first Italian clinical facility making use of energetic (62 MeV) proton beams for the radiative treatment of solid tumours. Since the date of the first patient treatment in 2002, 400 patients have been successful treated whose majority was affected by choroidal and iris melanomas.
In this paper we report on the actual clinical and physical status of the CATANA facility describing the last dosimetric studies and reporting on the last patient follow-up results.
The last part of the paper is dedicated to the description of the INFN ongoing activities on the realisation of a beamline for the transport of laser-accelerated ion beams. The ELIMED (ELI-BEamlines MEDical and multidisciplinary applications) project is intruded and its main scientific aspects described.