Proton Therapy Center is located in Prague and is a modern clinical facilities.
Center is equipped with high-tech equipment, work here nearly 100 highly skilled professionals including oncologists, radiologists and medical physicists.
The Center actively collaborates with the Medical Faculty of the Charles University and the Czech Technical University. The center carries out scientific research activities in the field of nuclear medicine.

Therapy principles
Proton therapy uses a positively charged elementary particles of the nucleus of the hydrogen atom - protons, which in comparison with the electrons have a much greater mass. Protons are accelerated in a cyclotron to speed approximately equal to half the speed of light. This is determined by their relatively high energy (up to 230 MeV ), which can kill tumor located at a depth of up to 30 cm protons under the influence of strong magnetic fields are formed in a narrow beam (pencil beam), which achieves high accuracy of the lesion. When braking in the affected tissue is released energy, ionization and DNA damage of tumor cells. If these lesions are numerous, the cell stops dividing and dies.
The main advantage of the proton beam is the fact that the bulk of its energy it transmits in the so-called Bragg peak, ie the tumor directly, producing maximum destructive effect. Accelerated particle beam carries great energy and very precisely targeted.
Due to the fact that the patient is irradiated uniformly from different directions and intensity of the beam is well regulated (IMPT), this method can reduce the unwanted effects of therapy.

Technical Equipment

Proton therapy center is equipped with advanced technology, the Belgian company IBA (Ion Beam Application), which is currently the leader in the medical market for the production of such equipment.
The center is equipped with five classrooms and cyclotron radiation therapy, three of whom work with the mobile platform, a fixed platform and cabinet intended for irradiation swelling of the eyes .
To determine the volume of the tumor diagnosis and localization in the center using computed tomography ( CT), magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) and positron emission tomography.

Preparation of patients to radiation (fixing body on a special trolley table ) is made ​​cabinets radiotherapy, moving patients provides an automatic transport system. For re-examining the accuracy of adjustments and settings available to a system IGRT (Image Guided Radiation Therapy).

The main advantages of proton therapy compared with conventional radiotherapy:
• Minimal damage to healthy tissue and the related possibility of treating tumors near vital organs, which is especially important in the treatment of tumors in children
• low risk of side effects during and after radiation therapy, as well as more rapid recovery of patients after treatment.
• Reduce the risk of recurrence of malignant tumors due to precise focusing proton therapy and the possibility of increasing doses of radiation directed at the tumor without damaging nearby healthy tissue.
• High probability of complete destruction of tumor cells and the chance to prolong the lives of patients with preservation of its high quality.

Indications for proton therapy

1. Treatment of localized tumors , especially with well-defined borders
2 . Malignant tumors of the eye
3 . Tumors in the spine and skull base
4 . Tumors of the head, neck, lung and prostate
5 . Medulloblastoma
6. Craniopharyngioma
7. Glioma low malignancy
8. Ependymomas
9. Soft tissue sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma

Range of indications for proton therapy is increasing every year .