https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201715301012
Mini-TEPC Microdosimetric Study of Carbon Ion Therapeutic Beams at CNAO
1. INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, viale dell’Università 2, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
2. Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK•CEN, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
3. Fondazione CNAO, strada Campeggi 53, 27100 Pavia, Italy
* Corresponding Author: paolo.coautti@lnl.infn.it
Published online: 25 September 2017
Mono-energetic carbon ion scanning beams of 195.2 MeV/u at the Italian National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) have been used to study the microdosimetric features of an “active” carbon ion beam used in hadrontherapy. A 30x30 mm2 area has been scanned by a 6 mm beam with scanning steps of 2 mm. A mini TEPC of 0.57 mm3 has been used to perform measurements in a water phantom at different depths on the beam axis. The detector small size allowed for measuring, with good spatial resolution, also inside the relatively small Bragg peak region and inside the distal edge, where the radiation quality varies quickly. In spite of the high event rate (up to ~ 105 s-1), no pile-up effects were observed. Results showed that the frequency-mean lineal energy scaled well with the absorbed dose. Moreover, the dose-mean lineal energy itself seemed to be a good descriptor of the radiation quality.
Key words: microdosimetry / mini tissue-equivalent proportional-counter (TEPC) / carbon ions
A9; The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
