METHOD FOR RADIATING A SUBJECT USING A HORIZONTAL BEAM OF CHARGED HEAVY PARTICLES SUCH AS PROTONS AND DEVICES FOR REALISING THE SAME

摘要

The present invention pertains to the field of medicine and essentially relates to methods and devices in radiation therapy for treating malignant tumours using a horizontal beam of charged heavy particles such as protons. To this end, the tumours located in any part of the patient's body are radiated while rotating the patient when his body is in a standing or lying position or in any other position of the "length" of the body relative to a horizontal line which is perpendicular to the axis of the proton beam. The complex preparation process is optimised and the patient is submitted to the radiation. According to the present invention, the patient is placed during a preparation step in a fixation system (11) which is adapted to the shape of his body, wherein said system (11) is mounted on a stand and is displaced on a trolley (12) along a bridge into the radiation area (25). The fixation system (11) is placed in the active area of the outputted beam so that its longitudinal axis coincides with a plane perpendicular to the direction of the heavy-particle beam. The patient is then exposed to the radiation by rotating the fixation system (11) together with the patient about its longitudinal axis (10) and by reciprocating said system along the same axis (10). The rotating and reciprocating movements are applied discretely and are combined with a horizontal reciprocating movement on the same plane and/or with a rotation about a horizontal axis that coincides with the axis (7) of the charged heavy particle beam or is parallel thereto.