International Symposium on Ion Therapy: Planning the First Hospital-Based Heavy Ion Therapy Center in the United States.

Investigation into the use of heavy ions for therapeutic purposes was initially pioneered at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the 1970s [1, 2]. More recently, however, significant advances in determining the safety and efficacy of using heavy ions in the hospital setting have been reported in Japan and Germany [3, 4]. These promising results have helped to resurrect interest in the establishment of hospital-based heavy ion therapy in the United States. In line with these efforts, world experts in the field of heavy ion therapy were invited to attend the first annual International Symposium on Ion Therapy, which was held at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, from November 12 to 14, 2014. A brief overview of the results and discussions that took place during the symposium are presented in this article.