particle therapy general information Cancer is the second most common cause of death and about 33% of all inhabitants of the EU will be confronted with some kind of cancer in their lifes. Currently about 45% of cancer cases can be treated, mainly by surgery and/ or by radiation therapy. [S. Peggs, PAC07, June 25th, 2007] Hadron therapy with protons and carbon ions is - measured by their success rate - the second best technique, surpassed only by surgery. Up to the middle of the first decade of the new millenium, about 40.000 patients worldwide were treated by particle therapy at 22 particle therapy centers (Europe, USA, Japan, China, South Africa). The number of treated patients is increasing constantly. Carbon ions can be focussed directly on the tumor with great precision. Therefore, only the tumor is damaged irreversibly but the healthy tissue remains intact. Another advantage is the high biological efficiency of carbon ions, causing more damage in the tumor cells than other kinds of irradiation. Requirements for synchrotron based medical particle therapy facilities energy protons: 60 up to 250 MeV / u carbon: 120 up to 400 MeV / u particle number protons: > 1·1010 carbon: > 4·108 extraction time 1 s up to 10 s Application of DREEBIT ion sources in particle therapy Dresden EBIS-A Dresden EBIS-SC DREEBIT follows two approaches in medical cancer therapy with remarkable advantages towards classic ECR-sources. The compact Dresden EBIS-A ion source is working on room temperature conditions and provides enough performance to be used in up to 70% of the treatment scope. It is a powerful addition to ECR source based facilities with low operation cost and high stability. The Dresden EBIS-SC is a superconducting compact ion source which is based on the most modern principles of refrigeration technologies as well as electron-beam technologies. The Dresden EBIS-SC will be an attractive alternative to ECR ion sources particularly in particle therapy. Many medical irradiation facilities are completely occupied by particle therapy at daytime on workdays, but during nights and weekends the accelerator can be used for non-clinical research, e.g. for nuclear physics, radiation biology, materials research and others. For these activities many different ion species are desired and should be available from the installed ion source with the same q/A ratio. In that case only EBIS ion sources can ionize heavier elements with the same q/A ratio cost efficiently and at appropriate ion beam currents. In comparison to classical ECR ion sources this leads to significant advantages with convincing economic and scientific aspects. The Dresden EBIS-SC is a solution without any comparable competitor for CYCLINACs and also an ideal solution for Rapid Cycling Medical Synchrotrons. The emittance of DREEBIT ion sources are in any case better than 10 mm mrad! Simplification of syncrotron based medical therapy facilities