0 a type of subatomic particle
1 a very small piece of matter that is affected by the strong force, such as a baryon or a meson
It is no longer ethical to irradiate normal tissue more than is absolutely necessary and hadrons provide a way of minimising this dose.
The difference between the 2 modalities is that hadrons deposit their energy at an increased depth in the tissue.
As costs decrease and technology improves, the benefits of hadron therapy may result in the replacement of the photon for radiotherapy.
The effects are similar to those characterized with neutron and hadron irradiation in laboratory and spacecraft experiments.
This paper introduces the concept of hadron therapy and presents an evaluation of the potential benefits associated with it.
There is obviously a massive initial payment associated with hadron therapy f acilities due to the newness of the technology and the complicated technical specifications.
The techniques of intensity modulation that have been so revolutionary to radiotherapy can and should also be applied to hadron therapy beams.
This is due to the fact that most departments have either a particular hadron facility or photon facilities, making randomisation to the other arm difficult.
