Pryanichnikov A.A.1, Simakov A.S.1, Degtyarev I.I.2, Novoskoltsev F.N.2, Altukhova E.V.2, Altukhov Yu.V.2, Sinyukov R.Yu.2
1. P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Protvino, Russia
2. Institute for High Energy Physics named by A.A. Logunov of NRC "Kurchatov Institute", Protvino, Russia
Lately, beams of heavy charged particles, e.g., protons and carbon ions, have found wide application in radiation therapy of oncological diseases owing to the fundamental possibility of qualitative improvement of the spatial dose distributions when compared to sources of electrons and γ-rays conventionally used in radiation therapy, which makes it possible to radically decrease the radiation absorbed dose of the undamaged regions of the tissue adjacent to a tumor. In this paper, we report a result of theoretical and experimental studies of the method for real-time monitoring of the Bragg peak position in a water phantom during scanned proton pencil-beam irradiation. This method is based on the detection of the prompt γ-rays emitted orthogonally to the beam direction produced as a result of inelastic nuclear interactions of primary particles. The principal parameters of clinical setup prototype, the accuracy of determining the longitudinal coordinates of the Bragg peak position, the choice of the optimal type of scintillator, and characteristics of data acquisition system were found on the basis of statistical simulation using the RTS&T Monte Carlo multi-particle transport code for realistic 3D setup model using of a slit collimator.
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