PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Mark Sheehan AU - Claire Timlin AU - Ken Peach AU - Ariella Binik AU - Wilson Puthenparampil AU - Mark Lodge AU - Sean Kehoe AU - Michael Brada AU - Neil Burnet AU - Steve Clarke AU - Adrian Crellin AU - Michael Dunn AU - Piero Fossati AU - Steve Harris AU - Michael Hocken AU - Tony Hope AU - Jonathan Ives AU - Tadashi Kamada AU - Alex John London AU - Robert Miller AU - Michael Parker AU - Madelon Pijls-Johannesma AU - Julian Savulescu AU - Susan Short AU - Loane Skene AU - Hirohiko Tsujii AU - Jeffrey Tuan AU - Charles Weijer TI - Position statement on ethics, equipoise and research on charged particle radiation therapy AID - 10.1136/medethics-2012-101290 DP - 2014 Aug 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 572--575 VI - 40 IP - 8 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/40/8/572.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/40/8/572.full SO - J Med Ethics2014 Aug 01; 40 AB - The use of charged-particle radiation therapy (CPRT) is an increasingly important development in the treatment of cancer. One of the most pressing controversies about the use of this technology is whether randomised controlled trials are required before this form of treatment can be considered to be the treatment of choice for a wide range of indications. Equipoise is the key ethical concept in determining which research studies are justified. However, there is a good deal of disagreement about how this concept is best understood and applied in the specific case of CPRT. This report is a position statement on these controversies that arises out of a workshop held at Wolfson College, Oxford in August 2011. The workshop brought together international leaders in the relevant fields (radiation oncology, medical physics, radiobiology, research ethics and methodology), including proponents on both sides of the debate, in order to make significant progress on the ethical issues associated with CPRT research. This position statement provides an ethical platform for future research and should enable further work to be done in developing international coordinated programmes of research.