Measurement of Radiation Hardness of PET Components

In-beam PET has given valuable feedback on treatment quality over the 11 years of operation time between 1997 and 2008 of the heavy ion treatment facility at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) Darmstadt. Based on this technical expertise a next generation of in-beam PET scanners will be developed. An experiment addressing the question whether the detectors and electronic components used in state-of-the-art PET-systems can be also utilized to configure a future in-beam PET scanner was performed at the medical beam line of GSI. The equipment for a new in-beam PET scanner should be tested whether it will resist the fluence of secondaries arising from the patient treatment of about 5 years. A ^12C beam of an energy of E=430.10AMeV was stopped in a PMMA phantom. The primary particle fluence of this irradiation was equivalent to about 5300 patient fractions (3 GyE per fraction). The detectors were placed at several angles to simulate a higher secondary particle fluence, i.e. a longer time of usage. They have been exposed to a secondary particle fluence equivalent up to 13 years of usage in an in-beam PET scanner. The equipment was provided by CPS and tested before and after the experiment. No damage was found applying the standard test procedure. analyzing the detectors after the experiment.