Session Item

"This house believes that in 10 years particle therapy will be in a better place than now!". This is quite a broad statement leaving plenty of room for arguments supportive of and against the motion. Why will it take 10 years and not 5? With the increasing number of (randomised) clinical studies or prospective registries on treatment outcome including the model-based approach, I believe data supportive of particle therapy will be available at an earlier point in time. The European Particle Therapy Network is a taskforce of ESTRO aimed at generating evidence asap by combining the outcome data of European particle centres. Why in a better place? In the past, particle sites were often research institutes turned into clinical treatment facilities. But nowadays, compact particle facilities are being integrated into clinical departments, in which protons or particles are then offered along with modern photon techniques. Therefore, the use of particles is already moving amidst our armada of therapeutic options. However, indeed, some developments will take more than 5 years before reaching the status of clinical implementation, e.g., MR-integrated proton therapy as well as upright solutions. I am convinced that some of those will revolutionise the field of particle therapy by expanding the clinical applications, altering fractionation schedules and, hopefully, real-time visualisation of the particle beam during the phase of dose delivery.