An overview of recent developments in FLUKA PET tools

Augusto, R.S.; Bauer, J.; Bouhali, O.; Cuccagna, Caterina; Gianoli, Chiara; Kozłowska, Wioletta; Ortega, Pablo G.; Tessonnier, Thomas; Toufique, Yassine; Vlachoudis, V.; Parodi, Katia; Ferrari, A.

doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2018.06.636

Cited by 19 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Recent developments in the FLUKA code have enhanced the accuracy of the models governing ion transport and interactions, resulting in an improved reproduction of the fragmentation mechanisms and thus a more reliable dosimetry and imaging estimate ( 48 – 50 ). Furthermore, the recently developed FLUKA PET tools enable the simulation of a PET scanner performance as well as signal acquisition throughout and after the irradiation, providing a more direct assessment of the imaging gain ( 51 , 52 ).…”

Section: Motivation For Carbon-11 Beams: Overview and Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent example of image performance evaluation used a SIEMENS Biograph mCT PET scanner from Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center as model, as well as a synchrotron-like irradiation with either 11 C or 12 C ions, simulating SOBP of comparable dose and range delivered to an antropomorphic head voxelized structure ( 52 ).…”

Section: Motivation For Carbon-11 Beams: Overview and Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical Design Report for a Carbon-11 Treatment Facility

Penescu¹,

Stora

Stegemann

et al. 2022

Front. Med.

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Particle therapy relies on the advantageous dose deposition which permits to highly conform the dose to the target and better spare the surrounding healthy tissues and organs at risk with respect to conventional radiotherapy. In the case of treatments with heavier ions (like carbon ions already clinically used), another advantage is the enhanced radiobiological effectiveness due to high linear energy transfer radiation. These particle therapy advantages are unfortunately not thoroughly exploited due to particle range uncertainties. The possibility to monitor the compliance between the ongoing and prescribed dose distribution is a crucial step toward new optimizations in treatment planning and adaptive therapy. The Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is an established quantitative 3D imaging technique for particle treatment verification and, among the isotopes used for PET imaging, the 11C has gained more attention from the scientific and clinical communities for its application as new radioactive projectile for particle therapy. This is an interesting option clinically because of an enhanced imaging potential, without dosimetry drawbacks; technically, because the stable isotope 12C is successfully already in use in clinics. The MEDICIS-Promed network led an initiative to study the possible technical solutions for the implementation of 11C radioisotopes in an accelerator-based particle therapy center. We present here the result of this study, consisting in a Technical Design Report for a 11C Treatment Facility. The clinical usefulness is reviewed based on existing experimental data, complemented by Monte Carlo simulations using the FLUKA code. The technical analysis starts from reviewing the layout and results of the facilities which produced 11C beams in the past, for testing purposes. It then focuses on the elaboration of the feasible upgrades of an existing 12C particle therapy center, to accommodate the production of 11C beams for therapy. The analysis covers the options to produce the 11C atoms in sufficient amounts (as required for therapy), to ionize them as required by the existing accelerator layouts, to accelerate and transport them to the irradiation rooms. The results of the analysis and the identified challenges define the possible implementation scenario and timeline.

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Section: Motivation For Carbon-11 Beams: Overview and Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Motivation For Carbon-11 Beams: Overview and Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical Design Report for a Carbon-11 Treatment Facility

Penescu¹,

Stora

Stegemann

et al. 2022

Front. Med.

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“…Using RIB, every primary ion will decay, essentially only at the end of the range, with the decay time always much longer than the travel time in the accelerator and in the patient's body. RIB would improve the count rate ∼10 × [55], reduce the shift between measured activity and dose (Figure 2), and mitigate the washout blur of the image (Figure 3) with short-lived isotopes and in-beam acquisition. Heavy ion therapy is nowadays only performed using carbon ions, because with heavier ions, the toxicity in normal tissues can be unacceptable.…”

Section: Rib In Radiotherapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Radioactive Beams in Particle Therapy: Past, Present, and Future

Durante

Parodi

2020

Front. Phys.

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Heavy ion therapy can deliver high doses with high precision. However, image guidance is needed to reduce range uncertainty. Radioactive ions are potentially ideal projectiles for radiotherapy because their decay can be used to visualize the beam. Positron-emitting ions that can be visualized with PET imaging were already studied for therapy application during the pilot therapy project at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and later within the EULIMA EU project, the GSI therapy trial in Germany, MEDICIS at CERN, and at HIMAC in Japan. The results show that radioactive ion beams provide a large improvement in image quality and signal-to-noise ratio compared to stable ions. The main hindrance toward a clinical use of radioactive ions is their challenging production and the low intensities of the beams. New research projects are ongoing in Europe and Japan to assess the advantages of radioactive ion beams for therapy, to develop new detectors, and to build sources of radioactive ions for medical synchrotrons.

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“…The experimental set-up geometry is reproduced with the FLUKA MC simulation framework [35,36]. The simulation follows the effective proton delivered from the accelerator, its interaction with the target, the production of residual nuclei, the β+ decay and tracks the positron emission and its annihilation.…”

Section: E Monte Carlo Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Proton Therapy Through in-Beam PET: An Experimental Phantom Study

Topi

Kraan

Krzempek

et al. 2020

IEEE Trans. Radiat. Plasma Med. Sci.

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In this work, we investigate the use of a PET system to monitor the proton therapy. The monitoring procedure is based on the comparison between the β+activity generated in the irradiated volume during the treatment, with the β+activity distribution obtained with Monte Carlo simulation. The dedicated PET system is a dual head detection system; each head is composed of nine scintillating LYSO crystal matrices read out independently with a custom modularized acquisition system. Our experimental data were acquired at the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice, Institute Nuclear Physics in Krakow, Poland and were simulated with the FLUKA Monte Carlo code. Homogeneous and heterogeneous plastic phantoms were irradiated with monoenergetic 130-MeV protons. The capabilities of our PET system to distinguish different irradiated materials were investigated, and the proton pencil beams were used as probes. Our focus was to analyze the activity width and the total activity event number in several cases. Irradiations were performed using either single pencil beams one at a time, or two pencil beams during the same data taking. The comparison of 1D activity profile for experimental data and MC simulation were always in good agreement showing that, the treatment quality assessment in proton therapy can be based on β+ activity measurements.

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An overview of recent developments in FLUKA PET tools

Cited by 19 publications

References 50 publications

Technical Design Report for a Carbon-11 Treatment Facility

Technical Design Report for a Carbon-11 Treatment Facility

Radioactive Beams in Particle Therapy: Past, Present, and Future

Monitoring Proton Therapy Through in-Beam PET: An Experimental Phantom Study

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