Physical and biological beam modeling for carbon beam scanning at Osaka Heavy Ion Therapy Center

Abstract

We have developed physical and biological beam modeling for carbon scanning therapy at the Osaka Heavy Ion Therapy Center (Osaka HIMAK). Carbon beam scanning irradiation is based on continuous carbon beam scanning, which adopts hybrid energy changes using both accelerator energy changes and binary range shifters in the nozzles. The physical dose calculation is based on a triple Gaussian pencil-beam algorithm, and we thus developed a beam modeling method using dose measurements and Monte Carlo simulation for the triple Gaussian. We exploited a biological model based on a conventional linear-quadratic (LQ) model and the photon equivalent dose, without considering the dose dependency of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE), to fully comply with the carbon passive dose distribution using a ridge filter. We extended a passive ridge-filter design method, in which carbon and helium LQ parameters are applied to carbon and fragment isotopes, respectively, to carbon scanning treatment. We then obtained radiation quality data, such as the linear energy transfer (LET) and LQ parameters, by Monte Carlo simulation. The physical dose was verified to agree with measurements to within ±2% for various patterns of volume irradiation. Furthermore, the RBE in the middle of a spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) reproduced that from passive dose distribution results to within ±1.5%. The developed carbon beam modeling and dose calculation program was successfully applied in clinical use at Osaka HIMAK.

Keywords: LQ model; RBE; beam modeling; carbon beam scanning; triple Gaussian.