Advances in the Clinical Practice of Particle Therapy

Particle therapy has transitioned from a largely experimental modality to an integral component of modern radiation oncology. The rapid global expansion of proton centres, growing clinical experience with carbon ion therapy, and the emergence of clinically translated helium-ion therapy, have created an unprecedented opportunity to refine how these modalities are used in routine care. Clinical data now span a wide range of indications, including pediatric malignancies, CNS and skull base tumours, head and neck cancers, thoracic and gastrointestinal sites, prostate cancer, re‑irradiation, and selected rare tumours.At the same time, questions remain regarding patient selection, optimal dose and fractionation, workflow integration, long‑term toxicity, quality of life, and cost‑effectiveness. There is a clear need to consolidate real‑world evidence, harmonize practice patterns, and translate emerging clinical experience into practical guidance that can be adopted across diverse healthcare systems. This Research Topic aims to capture and synthesize advances in the clinical practice of proton, carbon-ion, and emerging clinically relevant particle therapies such as helium-ion therapy, as they are implemented or translated toward everyday oncology care.We invite submissions that focus on the clinical use of proton, carbon-ion, and clinically translated helium-ion therapy in real‑world practice that include, but are not limited to:• Prospective or retrospective clinical outcome studies across tumour sites (e.g., pediatrics, CNS and skull base, head and neck, thoracic, gastrointestinal, prostate, re‑irradiation, rare tumours).• Patient selection methods, indication criteria, and model‑based decision strategies for choosing particle versus photon therapy, including emerging indications for helium ions relative to protons and carbon ions.• Practice patterns, multi‑centre or registry studies, and variation in dose, fractionation, motion management, and adaptive strategies.• Clinical guidelines, consensus statements, institutional protocols, and workflow/implementation reports specific to proton, carbon-ion, or helium-ion therapy.• Clinical treatment planning, RBE/LET considerations, commissioning, and in-vivo verification for particle therapy, including helium ions. • Toxicity, survivorship, quality of life, and health‑economic or cost‑effectiveness analyses in routine care.• Technically oriented studies (including AI or advanced planning/verification) that demonstrate clear and robust clinical impact on decision‑making or patient outcomes.We welcome Original Research, Clinical Trials, Systematic Reviews, Mini‑Reviews, Brief Research Reports, and Opinion or Perspective articles. We encourage clinicians, physicists, and multidisciplinary teams worldwide to contribute and help define best practices for particle therapy in everyday oncology care.Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent clinical or patient cohort, or biological validation in vitro or in vivo, which are not based on public databases) are not suitable for publication in this journal. Topic editors: Haibo Lin, Alejandro Carabe-Fernandez, Martin Bues Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79860/advances-in-the-clinical-practice-of-particle-therapy