Many things are not difficult because we dare not do them; rather, we dare not do them because they are difficult.” This quote by Seneca encapsulates the significance and scope of the Erha Project (Enhanced Radiotherapy with Hadrons), the first linear proton accelerator for the treatment of many tumors currently under development at Itel in Ruvo di Puglia. The project is being developed by Newco Linear Beam Srl, a spin-off of the company founded by Leonardo Diaferia, which will celebrate its 40 years of activity in 2022.
Antonio De Vito, director of Puglia Sviluppo, quoted Seneca during the roundtable discussions that followed the signing of the memorandum of understanding yesterday in the presidential hall of Itel. The memorandum was signed between Enea President Federico Testa and Linearbeam-Itel Telecommunications President Leonardo Diaferia, marking “an alliance between research and industry for the development of highly innovative technologies for increasingly effective and less invasive oncological radiotherapy applications.”
This historic agreement promotes the acquisition, exchange, and enhancement of technological knowledge, expertise, and professionalism in the sector for the realization of Erha and Top-Implart prototypes, valorizing technological and scientific competencies. Top-Implart is an innovative prototype of a proton linear accelerator developed by Enea, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, and the Istituto Nazionale Tumori Regina Elena (IFO-Roma) with funding from the Lazio Region and currently under development at the Enea Center in Frascati.
“This collaboration allows for the convergence of Enea’s technological and scientific expertise with ItelLinearBeam’s engineering and industrial capabilities and is strategic for strengthening Italy’s scientific and industrial leadership in a sector with great global dissemination prospects, such as particle accelerators,” highlighted Testa. He emphasized the importance of the added value provided by the transfer of knowledge to young researchers and technologists and for accelerating the establishment of the first proton therapy centers in central and southern Italy.
“In this region, there are competencies, and if desired, they can remain here,” added President Diaferia.
Echoing this sentiment, President Diaferia sees the Erha project as “the future of Italian-made proton therapy, representing a significant milestone in the treatment of the most common neoplasms and the result of years of laborious research, applied methodology, experimentation, and a challenge that has involved professionals and experts, a team of excellence from physics, engineering of complex systems, robotics, and artificial vision. Proton therapy is the most advanced radiotherapy treatment available, and the Erha system is the world’s first to have a p-Linac accelerator developed specifically for clinical use. The exchange program of know-how and expertise with Enea seals a favorable phase marked by progress and will provide further momentum in advancing production and positioning the first linear accelerators in Italy.”
Also proud of this valuable collaboration is young engineer Raffaele Andrea Prisco, project manager of Erha, who specifically discusses: “Erha requires an area of less than 100 square meters and is easily deployable in hospitals. Each component is managed by a single integrated control system with software for treatment planning and patient positioning, allowing for increased treatment precision. It is a ‘modular’ system with multiple contiguous treatment rooms releasing progressively higher energy, making it immediately available for radiobiology and subsequently for clinical applications. The proton therapy suite is completed within thirty months from the start of construction, with an experimental radiobiological room available from the ninth month and pediatric, orbital, and ocular treatments possible from the eighteenth month.”
Prisco exemplifies excellence valued in his own territory, in the South. One of the excellences in which courageous and visionary entrepreneurs have placed their trust and investment. Foresight, audacity, strategy rewarded by those who believed and made it possible. For the project, LinearBeam has nearly 15 million euros available from the Research and Innovation Fund of Equiter SpA, which supports research and innovation in southern Italy, represented yesterday by Maurizio Guglielmini, key financial manager.
The importance of the project for the territory was also emphasized by Alessandro Delle Donne, general director of Asl BAT, who sees in Erha the answer to a need in which it is fundamental to invest and believe.
Closing the meeting, Diaferia declared, “The future of proton therapy will come from Ruvo di Puglia. We will keep our commitment. I believe in it, and so does everyone else.
