Physical and biological range uncertainties in proton and ion beam therapy, A. Ruciński, IFJ PAN

Proton beam therapy is a rapidly growing technique for tumor radiation therapy. Range uncertainties, i.e. the distance that protons travel inside the patient, currently represent the biggest caveat for the exploitation of the full potential of proton therapy treatments. Indeed, while the proton range can be precisely predicted in a known homogeneous medium, it is affected by biological and physical uncertainties in the patient.
The seminar raises the rationales of proton therapy in presence of range uncertainties and updates on recent developments in range monitoring techniques. A line of publications titled Secondary radiation measurements for particle therapy applications reporting on measurements of charged and neutral secondary radiations produced by 4He, 12C and 16O ion beams impinging on a PMMA target will be presented in view of the development of a dose profiler detector for ion beam therapy range monitoring. The application of Monte Carlo methods for mitigation of physical and biological range uncertainties in proton therapy will be discussed. Actual status of patient treatment in CCB proton therapy centre in Krakow will be briefly outlined.