A laboratory in Russia says it has built a proton accelerator for treating cancer victims that is 10 times cheaper then any similar device. It may provide salvation for millions of oncology patients around the world.

Treating cancer with proton beams is one of the most promising methods to date. The particles are accelerated in a device similar to the famous Large Hadron Collider scaled down to ‘just’ a dozen meters and then fired at a tumour. The beam slices cancerous cells’ DNA and kills them.

Protons are much more efficient in treating the disease than the more common X-rays or electron beams. They have greater energy and can be focused on the tumour thanks to the so-called Bragg Peak – an effect that causes most of the protons to land on their target in the last few millimetres of their path – thus avoiding damage to healthy tissue. Proton therapy has a 90 percent success rate compared to about 40 to 60 percent for other forms of radiotherapy.

The biggest problem with the equipment is its price. For example, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center spent $125 million on their new proton therapy facilities in 2006. Proton accelerators also consume a lot of energy and are quite bulky.

A company in the science town of Protvino in Moscow region says it has the answer to the drawbacks. Protom’s experimental proton accelerator is 10 times cheaper then conventional models. It’s smaller – a hall 20 by 20 meters is enough to house the device and all its controls. And it needs less energy and servicing as well says its producer which claims 2,000 patients can be treated a year.

The first accelerator using the new design is now being tested in a medical lab in Protvino. The second one will go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The third – currently being assembled – has been bought by Slovakia for a new oncology centre.

Tech update: Science’s quest for panacea