Gantry 1

Gantry 1 was brought into clinical service in 1996. It provides treatments of deep-seated tumors. Gantry 1 was the first facility worldwide that used the magnetically controlled spot-scanning technique. This works like an old TV set, delivering the dose distribution point by point by steering the beam with magnets. In this way it is possible to generate any desired dose distribution in the 3 dimensions, without the need of collimators or compensators. The construction of the scanning system allows the proton beam to be delivered in parallel lines no matter what steering angle is used. This makes the beam position in the patient independent of the distance from the proton exit window (“parallel scanning”).

More than 1,300 patients were successfully treated at Gantry 1. Operations ceased at the end of 2018.