Laser acceleration of helium ions from near critical density targets is studied as an ion source for hadron therapy of oncological diseases. Helium ions are considered a promising candidate for therapy due to higher precision in dose deposition and possibly higher Relative Biological Effectiveness. The feasibility of using PW-class lasers to produce 250 MeV per nucleon helium ion beams that meet the hadron therapy requirements is discussed. The relative effectiveness of laser acceleration of He~3 and He~4 ions is studied.
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