Is Helium the next game-changer in cancer therapy?

The NIMMS collaboration’s HeLICS technology and the helium therapy in Europe.

By Amedeo Habsburg

In past years, particle therapy has been employed globally as an effective cancer treatment. Currently, several facilities use carbon ions and protons to irradiate patients. However, did you know that the treatment was first studied using different ions, such as helium, carbon, neon and heavier ions, at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1950s? Early on, helium ions showed promising properties for treatment, but clinicians decided to only concentrate efforts on protons and carbon ions. Now, with renewed interest led by EU research institutes, the unique potential of helium is being explored once again, focusing on its precision in therapy and biologically effective properties.

Source: Bevatron – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12194-022-00681-3/figures/1

Helium strikes a balance between protons and carbon ions. It scatters less in tissues and has a sharper Bragg peak than protons, delivering a more focused dose to the tumor, minimising damage to healthy tissues. Recent studies at Heidelberg university hospital continue to demonstrate this effect. Furthermore, helium ions require less energy to accelerate than carbon ions, and have less fragmentation. Both these factors are evaluated in this recent paper. All of this has lead to an increased interest and greater focus on using helium for the coming future.

In order to exploit the properties of helium, the NIMMS (Next Ion Medical Machine Study) project has created a conceptual design for a helium synchrotron named HeLICS. At the heart of a potential helium therapy centre, HeLICS will focus on accelerating helium beams, while also generating the right beam conditions for the FLASH effect. HeLICS therefore, doubles up on its capability to effectively enable cancer treatments, all while fitting into a smaller footprint than current ion therapy facilities!

To design HeLICS, the NIMMS collaboration had to leverage the competences of its multi-institute team composed of researchers from CERN, the CERN Baltic Group, the Tera-Care Foundation, the SEEIIST Collaboration and more. Elena Benedetto (Tera-Care), Technical Director of TeraCare and HeLICS’s lead designer, states;

“We started with a small NIMMS team and now we count 18 people, among which doctoral students, their CERN supervisors and other CERN staff devoting a small fraction of their time. Everyone is passionate, because of the impact of the project on society and because of the challenge to design a compact synchrotron (35m circumference), as simple as possible to be operated in a hospital setting!”

Alongside HeLICS, the team has been hard at work on designing a toolbox of technologies for particle therapy centres, including; superconducting gantries, RFQs, injector systems, and LINAC’s for radioisotope production, which themselves have a large impact for diagnostic, and theraputic solutions for nearby clinicians.

These technologies lead to a homogeneous portfolio which can impact the future of particle therapy facilities, all while developing the next generation of particle therapy researchers. Heli Huttunen, a PhD designer on HeLICS has this to say for the future:

“It is inspiring to see the widespread interest that HeLICS is already generating at this stage among scientists, medical professionals, citizens and politicians alike. I look forward to witnessing the future development of the project up close.”