Biomaterials play a crucial role in enhancing human health and quality of life. They are employed in applications such as tissue substitution, diagnostic tools, medical supplies, therapeutic treatments, regenerative medicine, and radiation dosimetric studies. However, their predisposition to proton therapy, which is a trending treatment in the world, has not been adequately studied. Ceramic biomaterials, known for their hardness and durability, offer versatile uses, especially in bone tissue replacements. The wide range of physical, mechanical, and chemical properties exhibited by ceramics has spurred extensive research, development, and application in this field. This study focuses on investigating and analyzing the ionization, recoils, phonon release, collision events, and lateral scattering properties of ceramic biomaterials that closely resemble bone tissue in proton therapy applications. Monte Carlo (MC) Transport of Ions in Matter (TRIM) simulation tools were utilized for this analysis. The results showed that Silicon dioxide exhibited the Bragg peak position closest to bone tissue, with a deviation of 10.6%. The average recoils differed by 1.7%, and the lateral scattering differed by 3.6%. The main innovation of this study lies in considering interactions such as recoil, collision events, phonon production, and lateral scattering when selecting biomaterials, despite their limited digitization and understanding. By evaluating all these interactions, the study aimed to identify the most suitable ceramic biomaterial to replace bone tissue in proton therapy.
Keywords: Monte Carlo; TRIM algorithm; bioceramics; medicine; zirconia.