Visiorobotics among the collaborators of the National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy

An all-Italian source of pride, the Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO) in Pavia is a hospital foundation established in 2001 by the Italian Ministry of Health, with the participation of leading institutions in the medical, academic, and research fields.
Aiming to become one of the most advanced centers in the world for the treatment of complex tumors, CNAO counts among its most exciting and recent initiatives the “BNCT” project, in which Visiorobotics is a strategic partner alongside Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Raylab, Else Solutions, and HiFuture.
Through the use of cutting-edge technologies and innovative methods, this experimental therapy seeks to push the boundaries of how physics can be applied to oncology.

CNAO’s ambitious near future

Thanks to the installation of a synchrotron, a special type of particle accelerator, CNAO has stood out from the beginning as the only facility in Italy (and one of only six in the world) capable of performing hadrontherapy—an advanced form of radiotherapy that uses beams of charged particles (protons and carbon ions) to target tumor cells with extreme precision while sparing surrounding healthy tissue.
Facilities currently nearing completion will soon host an additional proton accelerator connected to a treatment room with a rotating gantry. Another accelerator, dedicated specifically to the Boron Neutron Capture Therapy, will produce neutron beams.

Hadrontherapy explores new horizons with BNCT (and Visiorobotics)

This summer saw the launch of the Boron Neutron Capture Therapy project—already a flagship initiative for CNAO—bringing together leading Italian expertise in high-tech therapies, research institutions, clinical centers, and industry.
Over the next 25 months, the BNCT project will focus on developing an integrated pre-clinical ecosystem designed to support highly advanced treatment options for patients with rare oncological diseases.
At the end of this first phase, the results will be compiled into an “Investigator’s Dossier”, a prerequisite for clinical trials, pending approval from regulatory authorities.

BNCT: a new and innovative approach to cancer treatment

What promises to be an important new frontier in radiotherapy begins from a different perspective: the use of neutron beams directed at Boron-10 atoms.
BNCT involves the administration of a drug that carries atoms of this naturally occurring, non-radioactive isotope of boron—a semimetal with the special property of accumulating much more in tumor cells than in healthy ones.
When exposed to the neutron beam, the Boron-10 atoms split, releasing energy that, in theory, enables the selective destruction of cancer cells.
This combination of effective targeting in different body sites and localized treatment of only malignant cells could make it possible to treat highly complex tumors and, potentially, metastatic lesions as well.

The important role of Visiorobotics

A crucial phase in developing BNCT involves experimentation on non-human targets—samples that must be transported, positioned, and moved within irradiation rooms that, due to radiation exposure, will not be accessible to researchers (except after radioactive decay).
This is where Visiorobotics’ expertise comes into play: the company is responsible for designing an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) equipped with 2D and 3D vision systems and advanced kinematic solutions capable of handling samples with extremely high precision.

These samples (and, in later stages, live laboratory animals) will need to be moved into the treatment area, positioned, finely adjusted—sometimes by millimeters—based on experimental needs, and then removed and replaced with new targets.
The rover will also be responsible for placing samples into special water tanks that simulate human tissue between the neutron beam source and the tumor cells being targeted.

Through this contribution, Visiorobotics will play a vital role in ensuring that experiments take place under conditions as close as possible to real treatment scenarios, helping research teams refine the clinical protocols required for future applications.