Biological impact of target fragments on proton treatment plans: an analysis based on the current cross-section data and a full mixed field approach

0563526 - FZÚ 2023 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Bellinzona, E.V. - Grzanka, L. - Attili, A. - Tommasino, F. - Friedrich, T. - Krämer, M. - Scholz, M. - Battistoni, G. - Embriaco, A. - Chiappara, D. - Cirrone, G. A. P. - Petringa, Giada - Durante, M. - Scifoni, E.
Biological impact of target fragments on proton treatment plans: an analysis based on the current cross-section data and a full mixed field approach.
Cancers (Basel). Roč. 13, č. 19 (2021), č. článku 4768. E-ISSN 2072-6694
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : proton therapy * relative biological effectiveness (RBE) * mixed field model * Monte Carlo * TOPAS * biophysical dose-response models
OECD category: Fluids and plasma physics (including surface physics)
Impact factor: 6.575, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access

Clinical routine in proton therapy currently neglects the radiobiological impact of nuclear target fragments generated by proton beams. This is partially due to the difficult characterization of the irradiation field. The detection of low energetic fragments, secondary protons and fragments, is in fact challenging due to their very short range. However, considering their low residual energy and therefore high LET, the possible contribution of such heavy particles to the overall biological effect could be not negligible. In this context, we performed a systematic analysis aimed at an explicit assessment of the RBE (relative biological effectiveness, i.e., the ratio of photon to proton physical dose needed to achieve the same biological effect) contribution of target fragments in the biological dose calculations of proton fields.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0335476


Research data: Zenodo