Evolution of technology to optimize the delivery of proton therapy: the third generation.

The evolution of proton therapy technology will lead to a new generation of systems that allow for greater accuracy and precision of the dose delivery and will be more compact. We envision that over the next 10-15 years, the quality of deliverable proton dose distributions in the patient will be pushed nearly toward the physical limit of proton therapy. Those future proton therapy systems will fit into treatment rooms of similar size as today's conventional radiation treatment rooms. At the same time, due to technological advancements, the cost of proton therapy will come down to the cost of advanced photon therapy. We discuss some of the technologies that will put these speculative improvements within reach.