PTCH1 and cancer: In fact, these results extend the experimental possibilities and pave the road for further mechanistic radiobiological investigations to compare in vivo the oncogenic effect of protons delivered by a pulsed fully linear accelerator vs. a comparable dose of photons in Patched1 heterozygous (Ptch1+/−) mice, a mouse model of radiation hypersensitivity with a predisposition to cancer and non-cancer radiation-induced pathologies, including MB and lens opacity.