After a brief review concerning the advantages of heavy ions in radiotherapy, more interests are concentrated on treatment planning system （TPS） for heavy ion radiotherapy. Compared to the hardware devices such as accelerator and beam delivery system, the TPS is a set of software system, and different therapy facilities require their corresponding TPSs. Based on the specialities of the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou （HIRFL） , some suggestions on the TPS for tumor therapy at HIRFL finally are given.