The Clinic for Particle Therapy at the West German Proton Therapy Centre Essen (WPE) is one of the leading centres for proton therapy in Germany and Europe. As part of University Medical Center Essen, it is tightly integrated into the West German Tumour Centre Essen (WTZ). Proton radiation is a highly modern and effective form of radiotherapy. The advantage is that it treats almost exclusively the cancer tissue. This results in fewer side effects and often fewer subsequent treatments. Both of these factors significantly improve patients’ quality of life. Maintaining quality of life after cancer has been an important focus of patient care and research at the centre since the opening of the WPE.

Since 2013, it has treated more than 5,000 patients from all over the world with proton therapy at its clinic. More than half of them were children. It currently offers the largest radiotherapy programme for children in Europe. Treating children is therefore a special focus of its work.

The role of the Particle Therapy Clinic at the WPE is to identify the needs of CAYACS, especially survivors who have received proton therapy, and to contribute to the generation of content for the tool. The developed e-health tool will then be tested and validated with the CAYACS at the WPE.