MICRODOSIMETRIC STUDY AT THE CNAO ACTIVE-SCANNING CARBON-ION BEAM

Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2018 Aug 1;180(1-4):157-161. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncx217.

Abstract

The Italian National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) has been treating patients since 2011 with carbon-ion beams using the active-scanning modality. In such irradiation modality, the beam spot, which scans the treatment area, is characterised by very high particle-fluence rates (more than 105 s-1 mm-2). Moreover, the Bragg-peak is only ~1 mm-FWHM. Commercial tissue-equivalent proportional counters (TEPC), like the Far West Technologies LET-½, are large, hence they have limited capability to measure at high counting fluence rates. In this study we have used two home-made detectors, a mini-TEPC 0.81 mm2 in sensitive area and a silicon telescope 0.125 mm2 in sensitive area, to perform microdosimetric measurements in the therapeutic carbon-ion beam of CNAO. A monoenergetic carbon-ion beam of 189.5 ± 0.3 MeV/u scanning a 3 × 3 cm2 area has been used. Spectral differences are visible in the low y-value region, but the mean microdosimetric values, measured with the two detectors, result to be pretty consistent, as well as the microdosimetric spectra in the high y-value region.

MeSH terms

  • Carbon / therapeutic use*
  • Health Facilities*
  • Humans
  • Linear Energy Transfer
  • Microtechnology / methods*
  • Particle Accelerators / instrumentation*
  • Radiation Monitoring / instrumentation*
  • Radiotherapy / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Carbon