The report “Nuclear Physics for medicine" was presented in Brussels on 24 November 2014 at an event held under the auspices of the Italian EU Presidency, gathering over sixty experts in the fields of nuclear physics and medical research.
NuPECC (Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee) is an Expert Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF). The aim of NuPECC is to strengthen collaboration in nuclear science by promoting nuclear physics, and its trans-disciplinary use and application, in collaborative ventures between European research groups, and particularly those from countries linked to the ESF. NuPECC encourages the optimal use of a network of complementary facilities across Europe, provides a forum for discussing the provision of future facilities and instrumentation, and advises and makes recommendations to the ESF and other bodies on the development, organisation, and support of European nuclear research, particularly on new projects. The Committee is supported by its subscribing institutions which are, in general, member organisations of the ESF involved in nuclear science and research or research facilities.
Nuclear physics methods find increased applications within trans-disciplinary areas as diverse as energy, nuclear waste processing and transmutation, climate change containment, life sciences and cancer therapy, environment and space, security and monitoring, materials science, cultural heritage, arts and archaeology. In the past 20 years nuclear physics has progressed and new ideas have emerged leading to developments of technological interest. One important question in this connection is: how can nuclear physics techniques improve medical diagnostics and contribute to cancer therapy? The NuPECC report focusses on this specific question. It is important to stress that laboratories with focus on research in accelerator-based nuclear physics and on the related accelerator, detector, and isotope-production technology contribute indirectly or directly to developments in nuclear medicine.
This document provides an updated overview of how fundamental nuclear physics research has had and will continue to have an impact on developments in medicine.
NuPECC report, which is organised in three chapters: hadron therapy, medical imaging and radioisotope production. With this document the NuPECC committee intends to inform the scientific community beyond the nuclear physics community, funding agencies and policy makers in research of the latest developments in nuclear medicine driven by the technical efforts currently underway in nuclear physics facilities. Poland has its representative in NuPECC who is Prof. Adam Maj from Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences.
The report “Nuclear Physics for Medicine” came into being thank to the efforts of editors: Faiçal Azaiez, Angela Bracco, Jan Dobeš, Ari Jokinen, Gabriele-Elisabeth Körner, Adam Maj (IFJ PAN), Alexander Murphy and Piet Van Duppen, and numerous experts who contributed to the monograph. Contribution to the chapter dedicated to hadron theraphy added among others Prof. Paweł Olko from IFJ PAN.
The monograph is available at:
http://www.nupecc.org/npmed/npmed2014_hires.pdf
More at:
www.nupecc.org