Dr
Giuseppe Battistoni
(INFN MILANO)
Biological calculations in tumour therapy with ions depend on a precise description of the radiation field. In carbon ion irradiation, nuclear reactions cause a significant alteration of the radiation field. Therefore, the contribution of secondary fragments needs to be taken into account for accurate planning of the physical and biological dose delivery in the scheduled treatment.
Treatment Planning Systems (TPS) for ion beam therapy essentially use analytical algorithms with input databases for the description of the ion interaction with matter. On the other hand, Monte Carlo (MC) codes with sophisticated nuclear models are more efficient (though slower) computational tools for handling the mixed radiation field. Therefore, MC codes can be very valuable tools to support ion therapy TPS.
This contribution will address the application of the FLUKA MC code to ion beam therapy. Specific developments will be summarized. Comparisons with available experimental data and an overview of applications performed at several institutions (HIT, INFN, MGH etc.) will be given. These include calculations of physical and biological dose deposition in water as well as in tissue in comparison to analytical TPS, applications to Positron-Emission-Tomography, production of databases for new TPS and characterization of therapeutic beams. The results support the reliability of the FLUKA code for manifold treatment-planning related activities in ion therapy. However it is necessary to extend the collection of nucleus-nucleus cross-section data to better validate and eventually improve the models for specific and quite sensitive applications, like PET imaging, but also to provide a better description of mixed radiation fields for radiobiological calculations.
Please submit a short bio (max 1500 characters)
G. Battistoni started the scientific activity in 1976 during the work for the Thesis in Physics at the Frascati Laboratories of INFN on the development of gaseous detectors (streamer tubes) under the supervision of E. Iarocci. After some experience in the research performed at the e+e- Adone storage ring,
he participated to the NUSEX experiment on proton decay and to the development of the technique of digital calorimetry in view of the experimentation at LEP and for neutrino physics. Later he took part at the experimentation at Gran Sasso Laboratories in cosmic ray and neutrino physics, participating to the MACRO experiment. Since 1990 he is at INFN-Milano, where he joined the group for the detector R&D for LHC, participating to the development of Liquid Argon e.m. calorimeter for ATLAS. He later continued the research in non-accelerator high energy
physics joining the ICARUS collaboration. Since 2001 he is spokesman of the
FLUKA collaboration. In this framework he started to devote himself to the
application of simulation techniques to the topic of hadron therapy, being involved in the development of new treatment planning systems for carbon therapy. At present he also coordinates a national strategic project of INFN for the development of medicine related projects. He is also coordinating the INFN participation to the Envision project in FP7 about imaging in hadron therapy with ions. In 2006 he has been appointed Director of INFN in Milano.
Address
via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milano, Italy
Last Name
First Name(s)
Telephone
Institution
E-mail address
giuseppe.battistoni@mi.infn.it
Dr
Giuseppe Battistoni
(INFN MILANO)
Dr
Alfredo Ferrari
(CERN)
Dr
Andrea Mairani
(INFN Milano)
Dr
Cristina Morone
(Università Roma 2 and INFN)
Dr
Florian Sommerer
(HIT Heidelberg)
Prof.
Katia Parodi
(HIT Heidelberg)
Dr
Paola Sala
(INFN Milano)
Dr
Vincenzo Patera
(Università Roma 1 and INFN)
