About the event:
At 9th General Meeting of the CERN Baltic Group (CBG)[1] a designated Working Group “Advanced Particle Therapy Center in the Baltic States” (APTC) has been established. Mandate of the Working Group is the development of the CBG flagship project - creation of a modern, innovative research and cancer treatment center in the Baltic States by jointly working in a close partnership with CERN Next Ion Medical Machine Study (NIMMS)[2] collaboration experts. At the end of 2022 in all three Baltic States, representatives of medical communities, research institutions and relevant ministries were invited to bi-lateral meetings with the Working Group to be informed on the concept and status of the initiative and discuss the view of the community on the project idea. Through discussions, key critical aspects were identified for further work for future developments of the initiative: cancer statistics in the Baltic States region, clinical indications for proton therapy, technology readiness level of the proposed accelerator, synergies with the nuclear medicine field and educational pathways necessary for personnel at such a facility.
The main rationale of the workshop is to follow-up on the mentioned discussions and to jointly brainstorm and work on the identified critical aspects of the “Advanced Particle Therapy Center in the Baltic States” initiative among the key experts of the Baltic States in the involved fields: clinical radiation therapy, nuclear medicine, radiology, medical physics and others. Discussions and outcomes of this workshop are crucial for future developments and the next steps of the project initiative.
Goals of the event:
- To bring together high level professionals, experts and stakeholders from the Baltic States, nominated by the corresponding professional associations in the fields of clinical radiation therapy, nuclear medicine, radiology, medical physics and others involved to discuss and work on ideas for development of key aspects of the “Advanced Particle Therapy Center in the Baltic States” initiative.
- To provide fact-based and scientifically driven reasoning for each of the key aspects of the “Advanced Particle Therapy Center in the Baltic States” initiative based on the afore mentioned stakeholder opinion.
- To build multi-disciplinary synergies between the different fields and specialities involved in cancer treatment and three Baltic States at large.
- To introduce professionals and experts from the Baltic States with scientific activities at CERN for medical applications and technology transfer to the clinic.
- To reach a joint consensus and vision of future development of the “Advanced Particle Therapy Center in the Baltic States” initiative based on the conclusions reached within the workshop.
Contributors from:
Heavy Ion Therapy Research Integration project (HITRIplus)[3]
