In vitro evaluation of carbon and oxygen ion irradiation in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines

Introduction: Treatment options for patients with advanced HCC are limited and prognosis still remains poor. Potential curative treatments such as surgery, liver transplantation or locoregional therapies such as radiofrequency ablation or chemoembolisation can only be administered in early-stage disease. Conventional radiotherapy has been applied for treatment of HCC in the past with only modest results. Dose tolerance of surrounding normal liver tissue are limiting factors for the application of high local doses. However new radiation modalities such as particle therapy offer promising physical and biological c…