Abstract
In this article, the current status of radiation therapies in Japan and updated medical accelerators are reviewed. For medical use, there is a strong demand of a compact and flexible accelerator. At present, however, we have only two choices of the S-band linac with one or two rotation axis combined with the multi leaf collimator, or the X-band linac with a rather flexible robotic arm. In addition, the laser plasma cathode that is the second generation of the laser wake-field accelerator (LWFA) is studied as a high-quality electron source for medical use though it is still at the stage of the basic research. The potential of LWFA as medical accelerator near future is discussed based on updated results of laser plasma cathode experiment in Univ. of Tokyo.
