Detection Systems for Range Monitoring in Proton Therapy: Needs and Challenges


Detection Systems for Range Monitoring in Proton Therapy: Needs and Challenges

Pausch, G.; Berthold, J.; Enghardt, W.; Römer, K.; Straessner, A.; Wagner, A.; Werner, T.; Kögler, T.

In-vivo range verification has been a hot topic in particle therapy for more than a decade. In spite of vast efforts made by research groups all over the world, clinical means for routinely monitoring the range of therapeutic proton or carbon ion beams in the patient’s body and to ensure their correspondence with the treatment plan are not yet available. The paper reviews recent approaches with focus on prompt-gamma based methods, and points to challenges that have not yet been fully recognized or discussed: First, the macro time structure of treatment beams in common proton therapy facilities requires detection systems with extreme load tolerance, throughput capability, and stability against load variations. Second, the test time available for verifying the range of a single pencil beam spot is of the order of milliseconds, which limits the number of prompt gamma events that can be detected and processed. Tight event selection by passive or active collimation as applied in all imaging setups sharpens the information carried by a valid event but strongly reduces their total number. It might be better to use a multitude of uncollimated detectors acquiring time and energy signatures of every gamma hit with reasonable precision, and to pick up all the pieces of information comprised in timing, energy, and coincidence patterns irrespective of their sharpness. This would maximize the number of valid events on the expense of information sharpness, and could eventually increase the total yield of information exploitable for range verification. Some aspects of such a strategy have already been realized with the Prompt Gamma-Ray Timing (PGT) and the Prompt Gamma Peak Integration (PGPI) techniques proposed recently. Data analysis schemes for a more generalized approach have not yet been developed, but the hardware to be used can already be sketched: Prompt gamma rays should be detected with scintillation detector blocks consisting of single pixels with individual light readouts and independent electronics channels, similar to those developed for applications as PET-MR. Prompt-gamma detection is, however, much more demanding with respect to dynamic range, energy resolution, load acceptance, and stability. The paper will detail and discuss corresponding requirements that represent a challenge for the detector physics community, and report on activities at HZDR and OncoRay to explore the available options.

Keywords: Partikeltherapie; Protonentherapie; Reichweitekontrolle; Prompte Gammastrahlung; Gammakamera; Gammaspektroskopie; Zeitspektroskopie; Lasteffekte; Stabilisierung; Particle therapy; proton therapy; range verification; prompt gamma; gamma detection; gamma imaging; gamma spectroscopy; timing spectroscopy; load effects; stabilization

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Publ.-Id: 27073