From June 26 to June 28, in the beautiful and picturesque setting of Riga, RTU hosted the Third HITRIplus Project Meeting. The meeting was an excellent opportunity to network and share perspectives on Heavy Ion Therapy Research: it was a memorable and engaging experience for all the participants.

In his welcome address Prof. Talis Juhna, rector of RTU, stressed the importance to promote events related to inspiring projects in Latvia. He strongly believes that RTU will soon become a leader for future European research activities.

The Project Meeting opening speech given by Dr. Sandro Rossi provided insights into the status of the project. The topics discussed during the meetings were many, spacing from joint research activities to networking and communication. The audience was very engaged in the conversation, especially when it came to technology transfer, industry relations and applications. Education and training activities caught the attention of the young audience and the presentation related to WP5 sparked interest in connection with the Third HITRIplus School.

On the second day afternoon session, Dr. Manjit Dosanjh gave a speech on the importance of assessing cancer patient data and examining the current access to radiation therapy technology. The talk’s focus was on the Baltic Countries and the conversation led the way for the Workshop on “Clinics and research: considerations to create a novel particle therapy center” that took place the third day.

Aiga Balode, Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Latvia, gave the welcome address for the workshop, stressing the importance of cancer research activities in the Baltic region. Toms Torims then presented the conceptual idea of a novel particle therapy center for the Baltic community, outlining key clinical, scientific research and industry involvement aspects. After a clinical oriented session by Dr. Ester Orlandi and a session oriented to medical physics by Dr. Markus Stock, Prof. Thomas Haberer presented important considerations on the status of the novel helium ion therapy for cancer treatment. The last session by Dr. Sandro Rossi was focused on practical aspects and experience of difficulties and challenges that are to be faced, when starting a new particle therapy center.

You can find resources related to the Third HITRIplus Project Meeting, including photos from the days, here.