Organizations and volunteer associations

Various volunteer associations collaborate with the Trento proton therapy centre. Some make their facilities available for welcoming patients and their families and provide logistical support in transfers to and from the centre.

Others have areas set up for children and are involved in recreational and educational activities for the young patients. Obviously, there are also support activities for families, with some volunteers located at the centre. There are various collaboration projects being studies with other local institutions and companies in order the enhance the well-being of the children and their families.

• Anvolt - Associazione Nazionale Volontari Lotta contro i Tumori del Trentino
• Fondazione Lene Thun Onlus
• 27 giugno Onlus
• ABIO - Associazione per il bambino in ospedale
• Associazione Genitori Oncologia Pediatrica
• Lega Italiana per la lotta contro i tumori (Sezione provinciale di trento)
• AIL Trento (Associazione Italiana contro le Leucemie – Linfomi e Mieloma)

Researchers

The Trento Proton Therapy Centre is unique in the country and is open to international collaboration. It was designed to have two lines of protons dedicated to clinical treatments, with a rotating gantry, and a third, fixed line that is used for experimental activities.

The presence of the third line of protons for experimental use enhances the centre as a national and international research facility for both scientific activities dedicated to improving radiation therapy and for research and development projects that require the presence of a beam of protons.

The beam of protons on the third line is used in:

• basic experimentation in the radiobiology and oncology fields, consistent with the daily activity at the Proton Therapy Centre;
• R&D far from medicine and closer to strategic industrial sectors such as aerospace, the “radiation hardness” for electronic devices, the development of detectors, or performing tests of materials.

The scientific activity at the Proton Therapy Centre is supported by certain national and local research organizations that have signed an agreement for the use of the machinery for basic and applied research activities:  

• Provincial Health Authority
• National Nuclear physics Institute , through the Trento Institute for Fundamental  Physics and Applications
• Università degli studi di Trento
• Bruno Kessler Foundation

In the agreement between these four organizations, scientific strategy, research projects, and, more generally, management and access to the experimental room are governed by two special committees that meet periodically:

• Comitato Permanente di Raccordo (CPR) or Joint Standing Committee
• Program Advisory Committee (PAC)