Cyclinacs: Fast-Cycling Accelerators for Hadrontherapy

We propose an innovative fast-cycling accelerator complex conceived and designed to exploit at best the properties of accelerated ion beams for hadrontherapy. A cyclinac is composed by a cyclotron, which can be used also for other valuable medical and research purposes, followed by a high gradient linear accelerator capable to produce ion beams optimized for the irradiation of solid tumours with the most modern techniques. The properties of cyclinacs together with design studies for protons and carbon ions are presented and the advantages in facing the challenges of hadrontherapy are discussed.