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, and the growing clinical experience with carbon 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 and carbon ion therapy as they are implemented in everyday oncology care.

We invite submissions that focus on the clinical use of proton and carbon 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.
• 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 or carbon ion therapy.
• 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.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Particle Therapy, Proton Therapy, Carbon Ion Therapy, Clinical Practice, Radiation Oncology, Patient Selection, Treatment Outcomes, Quality Of Life, Health Economics, Practice Patterns

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.