Euromedim 2006 :1st European Conference on Molecular Imaging Technology

Simulation studies of an inline PET prototype

9 May 2006, 14:00

1h

Palais du Pharo, Marseille

poster • System simulation, design and implementation Poster Session :Simulation, Modeling, Reconstruction

Speaker

Ms Marie-Charlotte RICOL (Institut de physique nucléaire de Lyon (IPNL) - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL))

Description

Heavy charged particles like protons or light atom nuclei like carbon ions have interesting ballistic properties in cancer therapy. When used as projectiles, their electromagnetic interaction with matter is characterized with an energy loss spectrum peaking at a localized penetration depth: the so called Bragg peak. This feature, combined with a raster scanned beam modulated in energy and intensity, is used in hadrontherapy to deliver volumetric dose distributions that conform to the physician prescriptions. Thus, it optimizes the energy deposition in the target volume (tumor) and spears the surrounding media. However, projectile particles used in hadrontherapy have sufficient kinetic energies to undergo nuclear reactions with target nuclei. As a consequence, depending on the nuclear process involved, multiple nuclear fragments can be produced. Even though the cross section of these processes would hardly exceed 40% of the total interaction cross section, they would contribute to a significant spread of the deposited dose over the target volume of interest. Despite this unwanted effect in hadrontherapy, among the produced radioactive isotopes, a small fraction of those is β+ emitter and offers the only way for an online dose deposition control and even more the only way for the exploitation of inline and in-situ PET (Positron Emission Tomography) techniques for real time imaging. Here, we present our preliminary results concerning simulation studies of an inline PET prototype using the dose dependent predicted β+ emitters distributions for a real time control of a treatment plan in hadrontherapy.