Flash therapy: An innovation in radiation therapy

Radiation Therapy (RT) is nowadays the most common methodology to treat cancer cells. The most important requirement is to destroy the tumor and to minimize the damage of the healthy tissues as well as any side effect. In this scenario, an innovative technique has been proposed and already tested: the FLASH Therapy, which uses short pulses of electrons at very high dose rates. It foresees millisecond pulses of radiation (beam on time < 100-500 ms) delivered at a high dose-rate (> 40-300 Gy/s). These bursts of radiation are less harmful to healthy tissues but just as efficient as conventional treatment to inhibit tumor growth. We will discuss the genesis of this methodology, its implementation based on an electron linear accelerator and its evolution.