Measurement of 3D Distribution of Radiation Generated during Hadron Therapy Using Water Phantom and Pixel Detector Timepix

AbstraktAbstract

The hadron therapy is a new and very promising radio-therapeutic method with many advantages especially in cases when tumour is close to sensitive organs where standard treatment would be dangerous. For reliable treatment planning it is necessary to have calculation tools for maximization of dose delivered to targeted tissue and minimization of the dose outside of it. The physical processes in material irradiated by hadron beam in ideal case are known. But in reality there are so many unknowns and specifics for each particular patient that the analytical computation is impossible. Thus, the planning tools have to incorporate many simplifications. All these simplifications bring potential risks and have to be verified experimentally. The development of methods for measurement of radiation environment inside of biological material is the main aim of this work. For such measurement we use a pixel detector called Timepix. This imaging device is able to record shapes of particle traces including their energies deposited in the detector. All these data recorded for each event allow to estimate the particle type, its energy and direction of flight. The objective of the experiment is detection of secondary radiation using pixel detector Timepix in a water phantom. Measurements were performed in the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT) in Germany. Proton and carbon beams were used for the measurements.

The hadron therapy is a new and very promising radio-therapeutic method with many advantages especially in cases when tumour is close to sensitive organs where standard treatment would be dangerous. For reliable treatment planning it is necessary to have calculation tools for maximization of dose delivered to targeted tissue and minimization of the dose outside of it. The physical processes in material irradiated by hadron beam in ideal case are known. But in reality there are so many unknowns and specifics for each particular patient that the analytical computation is impossible. Thus, the planning tools have to incorporate many simplifications. All these simplifications bring potential risks and have to be verified experimentally. The development of methods for measurement of radiation environment inside of biological material is the main aim of this work. For such measurement we use a pixel detector called Timepix. This imaging device is able to record shapes of particle traces including their energies deposited in the detector. All these data recorded for each event allow to estimate the particle type, its energy and direction of flight. The objective of the experiment is detection of secondary radiation using pixel detector Timepix in a water phantom. Measurements were performed in the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT) in Germany. Proton and carbon beams were used for the measurements.