SECONDARY NEUTRON DOSES IN A PROTON THERAPY CENTRE.

The formation of secondary high-energy neutrons in proton therapy can be a concern for radiation protection of staff. In this joint intercomparative study (CERN, SCK•CEN and IBA/IRISIB/ULB), secondary neutron doses were assessed with different detectors in several positions in the Proton Therapy Centre, Essen (Germany). The ambient dose equivalent H(*)(10) was assessed with Berthold LB 6411, WENDI-2, tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) and Bonner spheres (BS). The personal dose equivalent Hp(10) was measured with two types of active detectors and with bubble detectors. Using spectral and basic angular information, the reference Hp(10) was estimated. Results concerning staff exposure show H(*)(10) doses between 0.5 and 1 nSv/monitoring unit in a technical room. The LB 6411 showed an underestimation of H(*)(10), while WENDI-2 and TEPC showed good agreement with the BS data. A large overestimation for Hp(10) was observed for the active personal dosemeters, while the bubble detectors showed only a slight overestimation.

Prompt gamma imaging of proton pencil beams at clinical dose rate.

In this work, we present experimental results of a prompt gamma camera for real-time proton beam range verification. The detection system features a pixelated Cerium doped lutetium based scintillation crystal, coupled to Silicon PhotoMultiplier arrays, read out by dedicated electronics. The prompt gamma camera uses a knife-edge slit collimator to produce a 1D projection of the beam path in the target on the scintillation detector. We designed the detector to provide high counting statistics and high photo-detection efficiency for prompt gamma rays of several MeV. The slit design favours the counting statistics and could be advantageous in terms of simplicity, reduced cost and limited footprint. We present the description of the realized gamma camera, as well as the results of the characterization of the camera itself in terms of imaging performance. We also present the results of experiments in which a polymethyl methacrylate phantom was irradiated with proton pencil beams in a proton therapy center. A tungsten slit collimator was used and prompt gamma rays were acquired in the 3-6 MeV energy range. The acquisitions were performed with the beam operated at 100 MeV, 160 MeV and 230 MeV, with beam currents at the nozzle exit of several nA. Measured prompt gamma profiles are consistent with the simulations and we reached a precision (2σ) in shift retrieval of 4 mm with 0.5 × 10(8), 1.4 × 10(8) and 3.4 × 10(8) protons at 100, 160 and 230 MeV, respectively. We conclude that the acquisition of prompt gamma profiles for in vivo range verification of proton beam with the developed gamma camera and a slit collimator is feasible in clinical conditions. The compact design of the camera allows its integration in a proton therapy treatment room and further studies will be undertaken to validate the use of this detection system during treatment of real patients.

Secondary neutron doses received by paediatric patients during intracranial proton therapy treatments.

This paper's goal is to assess secondary neutron doses received by paediatric patients treated for intracranial tumours using a 178 MeV proton beam. The MCNPX Monte Carlo model of the proton therapy facility, previously validated through experimental measurements for both proton and neutron dosimetry, was used. First, absorbed dose was calculated for organs located outside the clinical target volume using a series of hybrid computational phantoms for different ages and considering a realistic treatment plan. In general, secondary neutron dose was found to decrease as the distance to the treatment field increases and as the patient age increases. In addition, secondary neutron doses were studied as a function of the beam incidence. Next, neutron equivalent dose was assessed using organ-specific energy-dependent radiation weighting factors determined from Monte Carlo simulations of neutron spectra at each organ. The equivalent dose was found to reach a maximum value of ∼155 mSv at the level of the breasts for a delivery of 49 proton Gy to an intracranial tumour of a one-year-old female patient. Finally, a thorough comparison of the calculation results with published data demonstrated the dependence of neutron dose on the treatment configuration and proved the need for facility-specific and treatment-dependent neutron dose calculations.

Secondary neutron doses in a compact proton therapy system.

Proton therapy offers several advantages compared with classical radiotherapy owing to a better dose conformity to the tumour volume. However, proton interactions with beam transport elements and the human tissues lead to the production of secondary neutrons, resulting in an extra whole-body dose with some carcinogenic potential. In this study, the secondary neutron doses generated with an active beam scanning system and with two compact proton therapy systems recently appeared on the market are compared.

Real-time proton beam range monitoring by means of prompt-gamma detection with a collimated camera.

Prompt-gamma profile was measured at WPE-Essen using 160 MeV protons impinging a movable PMMA target. A single collimated detector was used with time-of-flight (TOF) to reduce the background due to neutrons. The target entrance rise and the Bragg peak falloff retrieval precision was determined as a function of incident proton number by a fitting procedure using independent data sets. Assuming improved sensitivity of this camera design by using a greater number of detectors, retrieval precisions of 1 to 2 mm (rms) are expected for a clinical pencil beam. TOF improves the contrast-to-noise ratio and the performance of the method significantly.

Neutron H*(10) inside a proton therapy facility: comparison between Monte Carlo simulations and WENDI-2 measurements.

Inside an IBA proton therapy centre, secondary neutrons are produced due to nuclear interactions of the proton beam with matter mainly inside the cyclotron, the beam line, the treatment nozzle and the patient. Accurate measurements of the neutron ambient dose equivalent H*(10) in such a facility require the use of a detector that has a good sensitivity for neutrons ranging from thermal energies up to 230 MeV, such as for instance the WENDI-2 detector. WENDI-2 measurements have been performed at the Westdeutsches Protonentherapiezentrum Essen, at several positions around the cyclotron room and around a gantry treatment room operated in two different beam delivery modes: Pencil Beam Scanning and Double Scattering. These measurements are compared with Monte Carlo simulation results for the neutron H*(10) obtained with MCNPX 2.5.0 and GEANT4 9.6.

Prompt gamma imaging with a slit camera for real-time range control in proton therapy.

Treatments delivered by proton therapy are affected by uncertainties on the range of the beam within the patient, requiring medical physicists to add safety margins on the penetration depth of the beam. To reduce these margins and deliver safer treatments, different projects are currently investigating real-time range control by imaging prompt gammas emitted along the proton tracks in the patient. This study reports on the feasibility, development and test of a new concept of prompt gamma camera using a slit collimator to obtain a one-dimensional projection of the beam path on a scintillation detector. This concept was optimized, using the Monte Carlo code MCNPX version 2.5.0, to select high energy photons correlated with the beam range and detect them with both high statistics and sufficient spatial resolution. To validate the Monte Carlo model, spectrometry measurements of secondary particles emitted by a PMMA target during proton irradiation at 160 MeV were realized. An excellent agreement with the simulations was observed when using subtraction methods to isolate the gammas in direct incidence. A first prototype slit camera using the HiCam gamma detector was consequently prepared and tested successfully at 100 and 160 MeV beam energies. Results confirmed the potential of this concept for real-time range monitoring with millimetre accuracy in pencil beam scanning mode for typical clinical conditions. If we neglect electronic dead times and rejection of detected events, the current solution with its collimator at 15 cm from the beam axis can achieve a 1-2 mm standard deviation on range estimation in a homogeneous PMMA target for numbers of protons that correspond to doses in water at the Bragg peak as low as 15 cGy at 100 MeV and 25 cGy at 160 MeV assuming pencil beams with a Gaussian profile of 5 mm sigma at target entrance.

Monte Carlo calculations of positron emitter yields in proton radiotherapy.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a promising tool for monitoring the three-dimensional dose distribution in charged particle radiotherapy. PET imaging during or shortly after proton treatment is based on the detection of annihilation photons following the ß(+)-decay of radionuclides resulting from nuclear reactions in the irradiated tissue. Therapy monitoring is achieved by comparing the measured spatial distribution of irradiation-induced ß(+)-activity with the predicted distribution based on the treatment plan. The accuracy of the calculated distribution depends on the correctness of the computational models, implemented in the employed Monte Carlo (MC) codes that describe the interactions of the charged particle beam with matter and the production of radionuclides and secondary particles. However, no well-established theoretical models exist for predicting the nuclear interactions and so phenomenological models are typically used based on parameters derived from experimental data. Unfortunately, the experimental data presently available are insufficient to validate such phenomenological hadronic interaction models. Hence, a comparison among the models used by the different MC packages is desirable. In this work, starting from a common geometry, we compare the performances of MCNPX, GATE and PHITS MC codes in predicting the amount and spatial distribution of proton-induced activity, at therapeutic energies, to the already experimentally validated PET modelling based on the FLUKA MC code. In particular, we show how the amount of ß(+)-emitters produced in tissue-like media depends on the physics model and cross-sectional data used to describe the proton nuclear interactions, thus calling for future experimental campaigns aiming at supporting improvements of MC modelling for clinical application of PET monitoring.

Overview of the IBA accelerator-based BNCT system.

During the last few years, IBA started the development of an accelerator-based BNCT system. The accelerator is a Dynamitron built by RDI in USA and will produce a 20 mA proton beam at 2.8 MeV. Neutrons will be produced by the (7)Li(p,n)(7)Be nuclear reaction using a thin lithium target. The neutron energy spectrum will be tailored using a beam shaping assembly. This overview presents the current status of the system: after a description of every component, some design issues, solutions and experimental tests will be discussed.

Cross section for b-Jet production in &pmacr;p collisions at radicals = 1.8 TeV

Bottom-quark production in &pmacr;p collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV is studied with 5 pb(-1) of data collected in 1995 by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The differential production cross section for b jets in the central rapidity region ( | y(b)|<1) as a function of jet transverse energy is extracted from a muon-tagged jet sample. Within experimental and theoretical uncertainties, D0 results are found to be higher than, but compatible with, next-to-leading-order QCD predictions.

Isolated photon cross section in p&pmacr; collisions at radicals = 1. 8 TeV

We report a new measurement of the cross section for the production of isolated photons with transverse energies ( E(gamma)(T)) above 10 GeV and pseudorapidities |eta|<2.5 in p&pmacr; collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV. The results are based on a data sample of 107.6 pb(-1) recorded during 1992-1995 with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The background, predominantly from jets which fragment to neutral mesons, was estimated using the longitudinal shower shape of photon candidates in the calorimeter. The measured cross section is in good agreement with the next-to-leading order QCD calculation for E(gamma)(T) greater, similar36 GeV.

Differential production cross section of Z bosons as a function of transverse momentum at sqrt

We present a measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of Z bosons produced in p&pmacr; collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV from data collected by the DO experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We find good agreement between our results and current resummation calculations, and also use our data to extract nonperturbative parameters for a particular version of the resummation formalism. The resulting values are significantly more precise than obtained in previous determinations.

Search for second-generation leptoquark pairs in &pmacr;p collisions at radicals = 1.8 TeV

We have searched for second-generation leptoquark (LQ) pairs in the &mgr;&mgr;+jets channel using 94+/-5 pb(-1) of &pmacr;p collider data collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron during 1993-1996. No evidence for a signal is observed. These results are combined with those from the &mgr;nu+jets and nunu+jets channels to obtain 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits on the LQ pair production cross section as a function of mass and beta, the branching fraction of a LQ decay into a charged lepton and a quark. Lower limits of 200(180) GeV/c(2) for beta = 1(1 / 2) are set at the 95% C.L. on the mass of scalar LQ. Mass limits are also set on vector leptoquarks as a function of beta.

Measurement of the W boson mass using electrons at large rapidities

We report a measurement of the W boson mass based on an integrated luminosity of 82 pb(-1) from p&pmacr; collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV recorded in 1994-1995 by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. We identify W bosons by their decays to enu, where the electron is detected in the forward calorimeters. We extract the mass by fitting the transverse mass and the electron and neutrino transverse momentum spectra of 11 089 W boson candidates. We measure M(W) = 80.691+/-0.227 GeV. By combining this measurement with our previously published central calorimeter results from data taken in 1992-1993 and 1994-1995, we obtain M(W) = 80.482+/-0.091 GeV.

Small-angle muon and bottom-quark production in p&pmacr; collisions at radicals = 1.8 TeV

This Letter describes a measurement of the muon cross section originating from b-quark decay in the forward rapidity range 2.4<| y(&mgr;)|<3.2 in p&pmacr; collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV. The data used in this analysis were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron. We find that next-to-leading-order QCD calculations underestimate b-quark production by a factor of 4 in the forward rapidity region.

Spin correlation in t&tmacr; production from p&pmacr; collisions at radicals = 1.8 TeV

The D0 collaboration has performed a study of spin correlation in t&tmacr; production for the process t&tmacr;-->bW(+)&bmacr;W-, where the W bosons decay to enu or &mgr;nu. A sample of six events was collected during an exposure of the D0 detector to an integrated luminosity of approximately 125 pb(-1) of sqrt[s] = 1.8 TeV p&pmacr; collisions. The standard model (SM) predicts that the short lifetime of the top quark ensures the transmission of any spin information at production to the t&tmacr; decay products. The degree of spin correlation is characterized by a correlation coefficient kappa. We find that kappa>-0.25 at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the SM prediction of kappa = 0.88.