Transformative Technology for FLASH Radiation Therapy: A Snowmass 2021 White Paper

Journal Article · Mon Mar 21 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · TBD

OSTI ID:1862234

Boucher, Salime ^[1]; Esarey, Eric ^[2]; Geddes, Cameron ^[2]; Johnstone, Carol ^[3]; Kutsaev, Sergey  ^[1]; Loo, Billy W. ^[4]; Méot, Francois ^[5]; Mustapha, Brahim ^[6]; Nakamura, Kei ^[2]; Nanni, Emilio ^[7]; Obst-Huebl, Lieselotte ^[2]; Sampayan, Stephen E. ^[2]; Schroeder, Carl ^[2]; Schulte, Reinhard ^[8]; Sheng, Ke ^[7]; Snijders, Antoine ^[2]; Snively, Emma  ^[9]; Tantawi, Sami G. ^[9]; van Tilborg, Jeroen ^[2]

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1. RadiaBeam Tech.
2. LBL, Berkeley
3. Fermilab
4. Stanford U.
5. Brookhaven
6. Argonne
7. UCLA
8. Loma Linda U.
9. SLAC

Conventional cancer therapies include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and, more recently, immunotherapy. These modalities are often combined to improve the therapeutic index. The general concept of radiation therapy is to increase the therapeutic index by creating a physical dose differential between tumors and normal tissues through precision dose targeting, image guidance, and high radiation beams that deliver radiation dose with high conformality, e.g., protons and ions. However, treatment and cure are still limited by normal tissue radiation toxicity, with many patients experiencing acute and long-term side effects. Recently, however, a fundamentally different paradigm for increasing the therapeutic index of radiation therapy has emerged, supported by preclinical research, and based on the FLASH radiation effect. FLASH radiation therapy (FLASH-RT) is an ultra-high dose-rate delivery of a therapeutic radiation dose within a fraction of a second. Experimental studies have shown that normal tissues seem to be universally spared at these high dose rates, whereas tumors are not. The dose delivery conditions are not yet fully characterized. Still, it is currently estimated that large doses of 10 Gy or more delivered in 200 ms or less produce normal tissue sparing effects yet effectively kill tumor cells. There is a great opportunity, but also many technical challenges, for the accelerator community to create the required dose rates with novel and compact accelerators to ensure the safe delivery of FLASH radiation beams.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 1862234
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-22-212-AD; arXiv:2203.11047; oai:inspirehep.net:2055924
• Journal Information: TBD, Journal Name: TBD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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