Reduced Calibration Curve for Proton Computed Tomography

Journal Article · Fri May 21 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3447997· OSTI ID:21362070

Yevseyeva, Olga; Assis, Joaquim de ^[1]; Evseev, Ivan; Schelin, Hugo; Paschuk, Sergei; Milhoretto, Edney; Setti, Joao ^[2]; Diaz, Katherin ^[3]; Hormaza, Joel ^[4]; Lopes, Ricardo ^[5]

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1. Instituto Politecnico da UERJ, Rua Alberto Rangel s/no, 28630-050, Nova Friburgo-RJ (Brazil)
2. Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Parana-UTFPR, Av. Sete de Setembro 3166, 80230-901, Curitiba-PR (Brazil)
3. Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnologicas y Desarrollo Nuclear-CEADEN, Calle 30 no 502 e/5ta y 7ma Avenida, Playa, Ciudad Habana (Cuba)
4. Instituto de Biociencias da UNESP, Distrito de Rubiao Jr. s/no, 18618-000, Botucatu-SP (Brazil)
5. Laboratorio de Instrumentacao Nuclear, COPPE/UFRJ, Av. Horacio Macedo 2030, 21941-914, Rio de Janeiro-RJ (Brazil)

The pCT deals with relatively thick targets like the human head or trunk. Thus, the fidelity of pCT as a tool for proton therapy planning depends on the accuracy of physical formulas used for proton interaction with thick absorbers. Although the actual overall accuracy of the proton stopping power in the Bethe-Bloch domain is about 1%, the analytical calculations and the Monte Carlo simulations with codes like TRIM/SRIM, MCNPX and GEANT4 do not agreed with each other. A tentative to validate the codes against experimental data for thick absorbers bring some difficulties: only a few data is available and the existing data sets have been acquired at different initial proton energies, and for different absorber materials. In this work we compare the results of our Monte Carlo simulations with existing experimental data in terms of reduced calibration curve, i.e. the range - energy dependence normalized on the range scale by the full projected CSDA range for given initial proton energy in a given material, taken from the NIST PSTAR database, and on the final proton energy scale - by the given initial energy of protons. This approach is almost energy and material independent. The results of our analysis are important for pCT development because the contradictions observed at arbitrary low initial proton energies could be easily scaled now to typical pCT energies.

• OSTI ID: 21362070
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1245, Issue 1; Conference: 32. Brazilian workshop on nuclear physics, Sao Paulo (Brazil), 7-11 Sep 2009; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3447997; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
ABSORPTION
CALIBRATION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
HUMAN POPULATIONS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PROTON COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
PROTONS
RADIOTHERAPY
STOPPING POWER
BARYONS
CALCULATION METHODS
COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
MEDICINE
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
NUCLEONS
POPULATIONS
RADIOLOGY
SIMULATION
SORPTION
THERAPY
TOMOGRAPHY