The four pillars of cancer therapy which directly attack the tumour are surgical removal, irradiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.  The choice between one, or a combination of these therapies, must be planned specifically for each patient.  In most cases a combination of these treatments is applied.  Currently, 45% of new cases of malignant tumours can be healed through local treatment measures (surgery / irradiation).  For the remaining 55% of new cases, this is unfortunately not yet possible, due to metastases that already exist at the time of diagnosis (37%), or because the tumour cannot be resected by surgery or destroyed by irradiation at its original location although metastases have not yet formed (18%). According to the current state of knowledge, approx. 10% of these patients could be successfully treated with ion therapy.
The centre is foreseen to begin trial operation in 2013 and, once in full operation, it will treat about 1,200 patients per year.  The majority of these patients (90%) will be treated on an out-patient basis.  The typical duration of the treatment will be 2-6 weeks.