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Hadrontherapy

Particle Therapy (PT), or HadronTherapy, is an oncological technique for the treatment of highly localized solid tumors that exploits therapeutic beam. The complete characterization of the emission spectrum of secondary products is of multiple interest: the production of secondary particles must be studied, with precision to allow the Treatment Planning System (TPS) to take into account the additional dos, often not negligible, especially with therapeutic ion beams. On the other hand, the secondary fragmentation products can be exploited to monitor, possibly online, the treatment verifying the compliance of the absorbed dose with the expected one, optimized by the TPS.

The Dose Profiler is a tracker detector of charged secondary particles dedicated to the control of the dose administered to the patient. It is currently under tested at CNAO (Centro Nazionale Adroterapia Oncologica, Pavia) through a \textit{clinical trial} involving 40 cancer patients treated with proton beams and carbon ions.

While the charged fragmentation products have been studied with intense measurement campaigns and the nuclear models have been able to fit with the experimental measurements, the knowledge of secondary neutron production is still very approximate. Moreover, the additional dose carried by the neutrons is particularly harmful as it is responsible for energy releases even in organs far from the irradiated volume (\texiti {in- and out-of-field}). MONDO is a scintillating fiber tracker detector, currently under construction, dedicated to the characterization (in terms of energy and direction) of the secondary neutrons produced in PT. The first silicon sensor – SBAM1 – that readout the scintillating fibers with a compact readout, has been produced in 2019 and is under tested.

  1. Traini G., et al; Review and performance of the Dose Profiler, a particle therapy treatments online monitor, Physica Medica, Volume 65, September 2019, Pages 84-93, doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2019.07.010
  2. De Simoni M., et al.; In-room test results at CNAO of an innovative PT treatments online monitor (Dose Profiler), Nuovo Cimento della Societa Italiana di Fisica, Volume 41, Issue 6, November 2018, Article number 209, doi: 10.1393/ncc/i2018-18209-2
  3. Mirabelli R, et al.; In-room performance evaluation of a novel online charged secondary particles monitor of light ions PT treatments, 2018 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2018 – Proceedings November 2018, Article number 8824552, doi: 10.1109/NSSMIC.2018.8824552
  4. Rucinski A., et al.; Secondary radiation measurements for particle therapy applications: Charged secondaries produced by 16O ion beams in a PMMA target at large angles, Physica Medica Volume 64, August 2019, Pages 45-53, doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2019.06.001
  5. Gioscio, et al. “Development of a novel neutron tracker for the characterisation of secondary neutrons emitted in Particle Therapy” under press on NIM A (2019)  162862 doi:10.1016/j.nima.2019.162862
  6. Rucinski A., et al.; Secondary radiation measurements for particle therapy applications: Charged secondaries produced by 4He and 12C ion beams in a PMMA target at large angles, Physica Medica Volume 64, August 2019, Pages 45-53, doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2019.06.001
  7. Mattei et al.; Scintillating Fiber Devices for Particle Therapy Applications, IEEE TNS 2018 65 2054 doi:10.1109/TNS.2018.2843179
  8. Giacometti et al.; Characterisation of the MONDO detector response to neutrons by means of a FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation, Radiation Measurements 2018 119 144-149 10.1016/j.radmeas.2018.10.006
  9. Mirabelli, et al.; The MONDO Detector Prototype Development and Test: Steps Toward an SPAD-CMOS-Based Integrated Readout (SBAM Sensor) IEEE TNS 2018 65 2 744-751 10.1109/TNS.2017.2785768

Michela Marafini

  • Vincenzo Patera, Professore Ordinario, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”.
  • Alessio Sarti, Professore Associato, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”.
  • Adalberto Sciubba, Professore Ordinario, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”.
  • Giacomo Traini, Ricercatore Tempo Indeterminato, INFN.
  • Riccardo Mirabelli, Post Doc, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”