Capital Expansion > What Is Carbon Ion Therapy? A Look Inside the Cancer Treatment

What Is Carbon Ion Therapy? A Look Inside the Cancer Treatment

By Alison Caldwell, Ph.D. Photography by Paul Najlis

Mayo Clinic is pioneering the reintroduction of carbon ion therapy in North America with the construction of a new facility in Jacksonville, Florida. This will be the first clinical carbon ion radiation therapy center of its kind on the continent and will provide advanced cancer treatment options that are currently only available in 15 centers across Asia and Europe.

How does this innovative therapy work, and how does it stack up against other cancer radiation therapies?

How Does Carbon Ion Therapy Work?

Carbon ion therapy is a type of radiation treatment that uses beams of carbon ions to target and destroy cancerous tumors. At its core, carbon ion therapy works by accelerating carbon atoms to nearly the speed of light and stripping them of their electrons, creating positively charged carbon ions that are sent directly into the tumor. Within the tumor, these ions damage the DNA of the cancer cells. This leads to breaks in the chromosomes that can kill the cells.

When carbon ions enter the body, they deposit most of their energy at a specific depth, known as the Bragg peak, which can be adjusted to coincide with the location of the tumor. This means that the radiation from the carbon ions can be finely tuned to just that targeted location, damaging and killing cancer cells while minimizing damage to the surrounding tissue. This precision is especially important when treating cancers located near or in vulnerable or sensitive parts of the body.

How Does Carbon Ion Therapy Compare to Other Radiation Therapies?

Radiation therapy has been a part of cancer treatment for over a century and is currently used in approximately half of the people diagnosed with invasive cancers in the U.S. Conventional radiation therapy uses X-rays, which kill cancer cells using a beam of high-energy photons. However, X-rays can’t be precisely targeted. In addition, due to the molecular makeup of the tumor, some cancers are radioresistant and don’t respond well to X-ray therapy.

Proton therapy uses protons, which have mass and charge as opposed to photons, allowing for more precisely targeted radiation to the cancer. This ensures most of the radiation falls within the target, reducing the amount of radiation that hits normal tissue, which is expected to minimize side effects from treatment.

Carbon ions are bigger and more massive than protons, which means they are more effective at killing cancer cells than protons or photons. They are so powerful that they can even kill cancer cells that are resistant to proton and X-ray radiation. All these traits mean that carbon ion therapy can be used to precisely target and kill tumor cells while minimizing the damage to the surrounding healthy tissue, and that patients can be treated with a lower dose of radiation and fewer treatments.

Possible side effects of carbon ion therapy include those commonly seen with other radiation therapies, such as hair loss, fatigue, headaches and skin reactions.

Where Is Carbon Ion Therapy Available?

There are many challenges facing the widespread use of carbon ion therapy because of the significant infrastructure and costs required to build and operate carbon ion facilities. In 2023, there were only 15 carbon ion therapy centers worldwide, across Asia and Europe.

Mayo Clinic is developing its new carbon ion therapy center in Jacksonville in partnership with Hitachi Ltd., experts in particle therapy technologies. It will be part of an integrated oncology facility that also includes proton therapy and conventional radiation treatments.

Mayo Clinic has been studying carbon ion therapy since the 2010s, with its radiation oncologists and physicists gaining expertise through collaborations with centers in Asia and Europe. The new facility will enable Mayo Clinic to conduct clinical trials and further research into the efficacy of carbon ion therapy for various cancer types. This research will explore new and expanded treatment options, including combining different kinds of therapies.

The construction of the new facility at Mayo Clinic in Florida is already underway, with the first carbon ion treatments expected to be available by 2028. Adding carbon ion therapy to Mayo Clinic’s patient care offerings will enable the organization to continue providing comprehensive and cutting-edge cancer care. This will allow Mayo Clinic’s care teams to continue offering patients access to a full spectrum of treatment options, enhancing the ability to tailor therapies to individual needs and improving outcomes for patients.

Capital Expansion
Capital Expansion
Capital Expansion, Healthcare Transformation