One of the first US centres for cancer treatment with hadron therapy will be built in Dallas, Texas, with the scientific contribution of INFN. The decision came during the international conference on heavy ion therapy (International Symposium on Ion Therapy - ISIT), held at the beginning of November in Milan. The agreement with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical centre - UTSW was signed by the President of INFN, Fernando Ferroni, and by Hak Choy, head of the radio-oncology department of UTSW. The agreement stems from the experience and expertise acquired over the past decade by INFN through interdisciplinary partnerships that have brought about several initiatives. These include: implementation of the CATANA project, in place since 2002, at the National Laboratories of the South, for the treatment of ocular melanoma, design and construction of the synchrotron, hub of the activity of the CNAO (National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy) Foundation in Pavia and the recent creation of the new proton therapy centre in Trento, with the cooperation of the INFN TIFPA (Trento Institute for Fundamentals Physics Applications) centre. CNAO, in particular, one of 10 accelerators in the world used in the treatment of tumours with hadron therapy using heavy ions - 5 in Japan, 2 in China and 3 in Europe - is working in close collaboration with the University of Texas to provide assistance in coordination of activities throughout the implementation phase of the centre. The University of Dallas will also carry out radiobiology research at CNAO and, pending opening of the US centre, tests will be carried out at CNAO with carbon ion beams