Laser-driven Hadron Therapy Project

The laser beam (10 PW, 15 fs, 150 J, 1023 W/cm²) generated by APOLLON Laser System, now under construction on Magurele Platform near Bucharest may also be applied in radiotherapy. Starting from this potential application, location of malign tumors in patient may be situated, e.g., superficial (≤5 cm), semi-deep (5-10 cm) and profound (>10-40 cm). This paper presents the main physical parameters of a research project for a therapy based on hadrons controlled by laser, for the treatment of superficial and semi-deep tumors. Energies required for pin-pointing the depth of such tumors are 50-117 MeV for protons and 100-216 MeV/u for carbon ions. Hadron beams with such energies can be generated by the mechanism Radiation Pressure Acceleration (RPA). Besides, the control systems to provide the daily absorbed dose from the direct and indirect ionizing radiation at the level of the malign tumor of 2 Gy in 1 or 2 minutes with expanded uncertainty of 3% are presented.