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Cancer treatment

Radioactive ion beams for radiotherapy

Nature Physics (2025)Cite this article

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Radiotherapy with charged particles is highly sensitive to uncertainties in their range. Now, radioactive ion beams offer increased precision and real-time imaging for tumour control while maintaining low toxicity to organs at risk.

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Fig. 1: Treatment set-up and PET signal for both stable 12C and radioactive 11C beams.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Medical Radiation Physics and Department of Radiation Oncology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Michael K. Fix

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  1. Michael K. Fix
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Correspondence to Michael K. Fix.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Fix, M.K. Radioactive ion beams for radiotherapy. Nat. Phys. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03038-w

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