Canted Cosine Theta layout for accelerator magnets is a very attractive since such magnets can be manufactured and assembled without big tooling, and with a relatively modest number of parts and tools. In the frame of European Horizon2020 funds, two collaborations, HITRI plus and I.FAST, are developing a CCT design, of 80 mm free bore, 4 T central dipole field, and 0.4 T/s ramp-rate. This magnet is expected to be the bending element of a gantry, to control the beam delivery in therapy with ions (hadrontherapy). The paper illustrates first a comparison between CCT and more classical cosine theta layout, followed by the comparison between Nb-Ti, Nb 3 Sn, MgB 2 , and HTS tapes coils. Relevant requirement for the magnets of this study is to be operated at low current, to limit the heat generation, in sight of a liquid-free cooling system. The results of the comparison is then applied to the design of two magnet demonstrators. Both adopt a low-losses Nb-Ti rope, consistently with the need for keeping the heat generation as low as possible. The first is a straight combined function dipole-quadrupole, while the second is a curved CCT dipole. The paper concludes with the first manufacturing tests for the CCT formers, for which aluminium -bronze, stainless steel and charged PEEK polymer are being explored as basic material.