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Proton Therapy

29 December 2021
Ute

The power of protons

Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

This gallery presents five people who have been treated at the PSI's Center for Proton Therapy.

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25 November 2021
25 Jahre Spotscanning

Proton therapy: a success story that started 25 years ago

Media Releases Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

25 November 1996: a world first for PSI’s Center for Proton Therapy in treating a cancer patient using the spot-scanning technique.

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9 November 2021
Dominic Leiser

A first for Switzerland: proton therapy to treat lung cancer

Media Releases Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

On 9 November 2021 a lung cancer patient was given proton therapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI for the first time in Switzerland.

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4 February 2021
teaser

"Ultimately, we aim to understand how diseases start in single cells"

Biology Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

Imaging and sequencing techniques combined with machine learning offer researchers countless opportunities to look inside cells with greater precision than ever before. G.V. Shivashankar, lab head at PSI, describes how such information can be used to find answers to pressing questions.

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28 September 2020
Serena Psoroulas mit der Versuchsanordnung in der Gantry 1

New technique for ultrafast tumour therapy

Media Releases Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

For the first time, researchers at the Centre for Proton Therapy at PSI have tested ultrafast, high-dose irradiation with protons. The new, experimental FLASH technique could revolutionise radiation therapy for cancer.

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31 October 2019
Teaser zur Infografik Feuer frei auf Tumore

Open fire on tumours

Biology Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

At the treatment stations of the Centre for Proton Therapy at PSI, tumours can be precisely irradiated from any direction. An interactive graphic explains how the protons get from the source to the body in order to trigger the elimination of tumour tissue.

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3 October 2019
Damien Weber

"It's important to keep doing research"

Health Innovation Proton Therapy Medical Science

Proton therapy is time-consuming and more costly than conventional radiation therapy, but its accuracy in targeting tumours is unsurpassed. An interview with Damien Weber, head of the Centre for Proton Therapy at PSI.

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26 September 2019
Bestrahlung

Cancer cells under attack

Health Innovation Proton Therapy Medical Science

At PSI, cancer patients receive a therapy that is unique in Switzerland. Bombardment with protons wipes out cancer cells  –  and does so more precisely than with any other form of irradiation.

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28 February 2019
Professor Beate Timmermann(Photo: West German Proton Therapy Centre Essen)

Children are her passion

Media Releases Medical Science Health Innovation Proton Therapy

At PSI, Beate Timmermann built up a programme providing proton therapy for children with cancer at the same time she was raising her own son. Today she is head of the Clinic for Particle Therapy at the West German Proton Therapy Centre in Essen (WPE) and is considered one of the most accomplished experts in this field.

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14 May 2018
teaser picture

Opening: Advanced technology against cancer

Media Releases Medical Science Health Innovation Proton Therapy

With proton therapy, certain tumours can be irradiated with exceptional precision – while, the surrounding healthy tissue is optimally protected. In Switzerland, this kind of radiation therapy is only possible at PSI. In a joint project with the University Hospital Zurich and the University of Zurich, PSI has expanded its capacity with a state-of-the-art treatment facility: the new, 270-ton Gantry 3.

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27 February 2018
teaser picture

Lausanne-Villigen return

Health Innovation Future Technologies Proton Therapy

Nowhere in the world have so many ocular tumours been irradiated with protons as at PSI. But before the affected patients go to Villigen, they have to visit Lausanne: for pretreatment at the Jules Gonin Ophthalmic Hospital. The more than 30-year-long collaboration between the hospital and PSI is unique, and in most cases it saves the patient's diseased eye.

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3 August 2017
teaser picture

Testing the Limits for the Patients' Benefit

Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

Proton therapy is already a success story at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI but researchers remain dedicated to making treatment faster and safer.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
7 June 2017

Big help for small children

Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

When small children develop cancer, the whole family is affected. Staff at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI’s Centre for Proton Therapy combine target-oriented proton beam irradiation and a caring, warm-hearted atmosphere to help these children.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
27 April 2017

Getting a Handle on Safety

Medical Science Health Innovation Proton Therapy

Proton beams don’t just cure cancer. They can also damage healthy tissue. To make sure that this doesn’t happen, PSI’s Centre for Proton Therapy carries out over 350 safety tests a year. The results speak for themselves: several thousand patients have undergone proton irradiation treatment here in Villigen. There’s never been an accident.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
14 March 2017

Rays of hope for patients

Medical Science Health Innovation Proton Therapy

For over 30 years, patients with a particular form of ocular tumour have been treated at PSI by means of proton irradiation. The tiny particles hit their target with millimetre precision, without endangering other structures of the eye. The irradiation facility OPTIS, developed at the PSI Center for Proton Therapy of the PSI, is a success story, considering that for more than 90 percent of the patients treated to date, the eye could be saved.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
19 January 2017

Added value for cancer patients

Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

At the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, cancer patients receive a treatment that is unique in Switzerland: proton therapy. This state-of-the-art form of radiation therapy against cancer has major advantages, compared to conventional irradiation, in terms of effectiveness and side-effects. The PSI has its own Center for Proton Therapy dedicated to this special treatment. Its pioneering work has not only helped several thousand patients, but also has fundamentally changed proton therapy worldwide.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
8 December 2016

Back to life

Medical Science Health Innovation Proton Therapy

Doctors had discovered, behind Gabi Meier’s right eye, a tumour that surrounded the optic nerve. Only at the PSI was there still one possibility to treat the tumour in such a way as to preserve neighbouring structures and the eye. A few months after the proton treatment was over, I realised that I could see more and more, she said in an interview. “Just dimly, it’s true, but I could see! That was sensational!”

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
25 November 2016

20 years of high-precision combat against cancer

Medical Science Health Innovation Proton Therapy

On 25.11.1996, at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, the world’s first cancer patient was treated with a new irradiation method: the so-called spot-scanning technique for proton beams. What’s special about it: The beam has its effect only at the depth where the tumour is located; healthy tissue above and below it is preserved. The method, developed by PSI researchers, was a breakthrough at the time and quickly became a successful product.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
21 July 2015
teaser picture

Fighting tumours with protons

Health Innovation Medical Science Proton Therapy

Interview with Damien Charles WeberDamien Charles Weber has been the head and chief physician of the Centre for Proton Therapy, the only centre of its kind in Switzerland, since 2013. In this interview, he talks about the successes of proton therapy in cancer treatment and the objectives for the next few years in this field.

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This is a text from the PSI media archive. The contents may be out-of-date.
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03/2022
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