2025 Volume 43 Issue 1 Pages 3-10
Carbon-ion cancer therapy, characterized by its high dose concentration, effectively controls tumors while minimizing the impact on surrounding normal tissues. When carbon-ion beams are delivered to a living body, positron-emitting radionuclides are secondarily generated. Therefore, to obtain information on the actual treatment beam, in-beam imaging using OpenPET, which features an open gantry, is effective and is expected to enable the evaluation of the beam range and therapeutic effects immediately after irradiation. Since our initial proposal in 2008, we have continued the research and development of OpenPET. After conducting irradiation imaging experiments in the physics laboratory of the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC), a clinical trial targeting head and neck cancer patients was initiated in 2023. This paper provides an overview of the development of OpenPET systems and the ongoing clinical trial.
