title: Status of the "ETOILE" project for a French hadrontherapy centre.
abstract: It is proposed to build a national centre for light-ion hadrontherapy in France, located in Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region. Under the auspices of University Claude Bemard Lyon-I and with the support of a research contract between Rhône-Alpes region and the Minister of Research, a design has been elaborated. This paper reviews the medical and technical characteristics of the project, called ETOILE (Espace de Traitement Oncologique par Ions Légers dans le cadre Européen). The research programs associated with ETOILE concern mainly the tracking of moving organs, the design of an in-beam PET detector, the simulation of the interaction of carbon ions with tissues and radiobiological studies on the radiosensitivity and tolerance of normal tissues and on the radioresistance of tumours. The capital cost needed to realize ETOILE is about 90 M Euro. We expect a definitive decision to build ETOILE at the end of 2004. In that case the centre will treat its first patients in 2009. A routine flux of 1000 patients per year will be reached after 3 years with an operation cost of 15 M Euro.
authors.affiliation: IPN Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon-1 et IN2P3/CNRS, Domaine Scientifique de la Doua. 4, rue Enrico Fermi. 69622 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bajard
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: De Conto
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Remillieux
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005602:France; D063193:Heavy Ion Radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D061766:Proton Therapy; D011836:Radiation Tolerance; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D017356:Synchrotrons
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon