University Proton Therapy Dresden
The University Proton Therapy Dresden ( UPTD ) (also " University Proton Therapy Dresden ") is a cyclotron system for the particle therapy of cancer patients with protons . It is one of five proton therapy facilities in Germany.
The planning and construction of the UPTD was carried out by three sponsors, the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden , the Medical Faculty of the Technical University of Dresden and the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). The system is located on the premises of the university hospital, in the OncoRay research building. More than 30 doctors, physicists, scientists and medical assistants as well as technical assistants work at the UPTD. Head is Mechthild Krause .
The UPTD started operating on September 22nd, 2014 to treat patients. The majority of the treatments are intended to research the effect of proton therapy on various tumors, the medical studies are carried out by the Clinic for Radiation Therapy and the "Institute for Radiation Oncology - OncoRay".
Radiation can currently be carried out in one treatment room, around 200 patients were irradiated in 2017, the maximum capacity of the facility is designed for 400 to 500 patients per year.
In addition to "double scattering", which has been practiced since 2014, in which the proton beams are expanded and aligned to up to 24 cm, "pencil beam scanning" (PBS) was subsequently also used. With this technique, in which a pencil-thick proton beam scans the tissue, tumors in the head and neck area in particular are to be irradiated. The treatment room has a movable end piece for the radiation source (gantry).