About this Research Topic
Therapeutic radiation is categorized into photon therapy and particle therapy such as proton or heavy ion (i.e. carbon) therapy. Particle therapy has recently become a popular treatment modality in the field of radiation therapy for cancer treatments. Compared with photon beam, particle beam - heavy ion or proton beam has a characteristic called "Bragg Peak" which enables a high dose to be administered to the tumor while greatly limiting the dose to the surrounding healthy tissues or critical organs, besides having higher cell killing effect than photon beam. Particle therapy has become a unique and important cancer treatment modality. More and more particle therapy facilities have been opened or are going to be opened for clinical practice around the world, although the cost to build a particle therapy facility is over an order of magnitude higher than a photon therapy facility. The challenges for particle therapy are in three major areas: (1) image guidance; (2) radiobiology; (3) beam configuration and delivery. Because of the Bragg Peak leading to very sharp dose drop-off, the superiority of particle therapy could become a double-edged sword.
To carry out a safe and efficient treatment, higher accuracy image guidance and better imaging techniques to distinguish a tumor from healthy tissues are crucially required. Imaging is not only associated with the accuracy of targeting, but also with dosimetry, treatment outcome assessment and prognosis. New imaging technology may also reduce the cost of particle therapy. This Research Topic will focus on one of the three major challenge areas - image guidance. Collecting manuscripts and publishing them in this research area will greatly help improve and enhance particle therapy, which will essentially benefit patients.
As described, the accuracy of targeting in particle therapy is crucial and determined by imaging technology. The current available imaging technology in image-guided particle therapy are mainly based on 2D orthogonal X-ray imaging and only in some centers in-room 3D computed tomography (CT) or on-board cone-beam CT (CBCT) imaging is available, although 3D or 4D CT and MRI images are commonly used off-line for treatment planning. Some new imaging technologies such as the proton Computed Tomography (or pCT) or MR-guided proton therapy have been proposed but are still premature for clinical use. While X-ray based imaging has poor ability to identify soft-tissue and to perform real-time imaging, MRI-guided particle therapy becomes a desired and promising technique. Exploiting the potentialities of the current available 2D orthogonal X-ray imaging and CBCT or investigating new imaging techniques would be the best way to tackle the challenge of image guidance in particle therapy.
The scope of the Research Topic should cover any aspects associated with image-guided particle therapy. We would like authors to submit the manuscripts to report the status and applications of current imaging techniques applied in image-guided particle therapy, as well as new imaging techniques being developed or proposed for particle therapy, and the research results and developments related to image-guided particle therapy such as image-based treatment outcome assessment or prognosis, dosimetry, and so on. We welcome Original Research, Review, Technology and Code, and Clinical Trials, and new proposed concepts, ideas, designs or techniques, as well as research results associated with image-guided particle therapy.
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in Frontiers in Oncology.
To carry out a safe and efficient treatment, higher accuracy image guidance and better imaging techniques to distinguish a tumor from healthy tissues are crucially required. Imaging is not only associated with the accuracy of targeting, but also with dosimetry, treatment outcome assessment and prognosis. New imaging technology may also reduce the cost of particle therapy. This Research Topic will focus on one of the three major challenge areas - image guidance. Collecting manuscripts and publishing them in this research area will greatly help improve and enhance particle therapy, which will essentially benefit patients.
As described, the accuracy of targeting in particle therapy is crucial and determined by imaging technology. The current available imaging technology in image-guided particle therapy are mainly based on 2D orthogonal X-ray imaging and only in some centers in-room 3D computed tomography (CT) or on-board cone-beam CT (CBCT) imaging is available, although 3D or 4D CT and MRI images are commonly used off-line for treatment planning. Some new imaging technologies such as the proton Computed Tomography (or pCT) or MR-guided proton therapy have been proposed but are still premature for clinical use. While X-ray based imaging has poor ability to identify soft-tissue and to perform real-time imaging, MRI-guided particle therapy becomes a desired and promising technique. Exploiting the potentialities of the current available 2D orthogonal X-ray imaging and CBCT or investigating new imaging techniques would be the best way to tackle the challenge of image guidance in particle therapy.
The scope of the Research Topic should cover any aspects associated with image-guided particle therapy. We would like authors to submit the manuscripts to report the status and applications of current imaging techniques applied in image-guided particle therapy, as well as new imaging techniques being developed or proposed for particle therapy, and the research results and developments related to image-guided particle therapy such as image-based treatment outcome assessment or prognosis, dosimetry, and so on. We welcome Original Research, Review, Technology and Code, and Clinical Trials, and new proposed concepts, ideas, designs or techniques, as well as research results associated with image-guided particle therapy.
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in Frontiers in Oncology.
Keywords: Particle Therapy, CT, MRI, Radiation Therapy, Cancer
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
