Real-time imaging for dose evaluation during antiproton irradiation.

Online monitoring of the stopping distribution of particle beams used for radiotherapy provides the possibility of detecting possible errors in dose deposition early during a given treatment session, and may therefore help to improve the quality of the therapy. Antiproton annihilation events produce several long-range secondary particles which can be detected in real time by standard high energy particle physics detector systems. In this note, Monte Carlo calculations are performed in order to study the feasibility of real-time imaging by detecting charged pions produced during antiproton irradiation of typical biological targets. A simple treatment plan in a water phantom is simulated and the results show that by detecting pi+/- the position and the size of the planned target volume can be located with precision in the order of 1 mm.

Possible biomedical applications of antiproton beams: focused radiation transfer.

A calculation of the energy lost by antiprotons stopping in water shows that the radiation transferred is localized within 1 mm of the stopping point. This "focusing" of the radiation is mainly due to heavily ionizing particles emitted from the nuclei on which the annihilation takes place. At present antiproton beams for medical purposes may not be cost effective compared to other charged particle beams, but the sharpness of their radiation transfer combined with antiprotonic radiography are highly attractive and unique features that may invite special applications.