A novel approach to seamless simulations of compact hadron therapy systems for self-consistent evaluation of dosimetric and radiation protection quantities

Hernalsteens, Cédric; Tesse, Robin; Boogert, Stewart; Flandroy, Quentin; Fuentes, Carolina; Gnacadja, Eustache; Nevay, Laurence; Pauly, Nicolas; Ramoisiaux, E; Shields, William; Stichelbaut, F.; A., Vandenhoeke,

doi:10.1209/0295-5075/132/50004

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…A complete and realistic model of the P1 has been implemented in BDSIM, as reported in detail in Ref. [19]. This model has been fully validated in terms of beam envelope in the transport beamline, dose deposition profile (Bragg peak) at isocenter and global transmission efficiency.…”

Section: Bdsim Model Of the Iba Proteus ® One And Beam Loss Fluence S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Self-consistent numerical evaluation of concrete shielding activation for proton therapy systems

et al. 2022

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Due to the advancement of proton therapy for cancer treatment, there has been a worldwide increase in the construction of treatment facilities. Therapy centres are often coupled with clinical, biological or material-science research programs. Research activities require proton beams at energies spanning an extensive range with higher beam currents and longer irradiation times than clinical conditions. Additionally, next-generation proton therapy systems are evolving towards more compact designs. In addition to the increased centres’ workloads, reducing the system in size produces a more significant number of secondary particles per unit volume and time. Therefore, the activation level of materials constituting those future proton therapy centres is expected to be higher, increasing the ambient dose and the amount of radioactive waste collected at the end of a centre’s lifetime. These operating conditions pose new challenges for the shielding design and the reduction of the concrete activation. To tackle them, we propose a novel approach to seamlessly simulate all the processes relevant for the evaluation of the concrete shielding activation using, as an illustration, the Ion Beam Applications Proteus$$^\circledR $$ ® One system. A realistic model of the system is developed using Beam Delivery Simulation (BDSIM), a Geant4-based particle tracking code. It allows a single model to simulate primary and secondary particle tracking in the beamline, its surroundings, and all particle-matter interactions. The code system and library database FISPACT-II allows the computation of the shielding activation by solving the rate equations using ENDF-compliant group library data for nuclear reactions, particle-induced or spontaneous fission yields, and radioactive decay. As input, FISPACT-II is provided with the secondary particle fluences scored using the BDSIM Monte Carlo simulations. This approach is applied to the proton therapy research centre of Charleroi, Belgium. Results compare the evolution of the clearance level and the long-lived nuclide concentrations throughout the facility lifetime when using regular concrete or the newly developed Low Activation Concrete (LAC). A comparison with the initial shielding dimensioning has been performed for all the shielding walls to validate the methodology and highlight the clear benefits of integrating LAC inserts in the shielding design. The effectiveness of coupling BDSIM and FISPACT-II gives a glimpse of the possibility of a complete activation study following the actual workloads of the centre, allowing a better assessment of the shielding activation level at any time of the facility lifespan.

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Section: Bdsim Model Of the Iba Proteus ® One And Beam Loss Fluence S...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fig 19. Evolution of the clearance index along the thickness of the most radioactive part of the South left Wall while using LAC.…”

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Self-consistent numerical evaluation of concrete shielding activation for proton therapy systems

et al. 2022

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“…This methodology is thoroughly described in [6] and was applied to the shielding design of the future proton therapy centre of Charleroi, Belgium. The IBA Proteus ® ONE proton therapy system that will be used in the centre was already modelled in BDSIM and validated against experimental data in [7]. The model was then used for the secondary particle generation required for shielding activation studies with FISPACT-II.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concrete shielding activation for proton therapy systems using BDSIM and FISPACT-II

Ramoisiaux

Hernalsteens

Tesse

et al. 2023

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Proton therapy systems are used worldwide for patient treatment and fundamental research. The generation of secondary particles when the beam interacts with the beamline elements is a well known issue. In particular, the energy degrader is the dominant source of secondary radiation. This poses new challenges for the concrete shielding of compact systems and beamline elements activation computation. We use a novel methodology to seamlessly simulate all the processes relevant to the activation evaluation. A realistic model of the system is developed using Beam Delivery Simulation (BDSIM), a Geant4-based particle tracking code that allows a single model to simulate primary and secondary particle tracking and all particle-matter interactions. The secondary particle fluxes extracted from the simulations are provided as input to FISPACT-II to compute the activation by solving the rate equations. This approach is applied to the Ion Beam Applications (IBA) Proteus®ONE (P1) system and the shielding of the proton therapy research centre of Charleroi, Belgium. Proton loss distributions are used to model the production of secondary neutrals inside the accelerator structure. Two models for the distribution of proton losses are compared for the computation of the clearance index at specific locations of the design. Results show that the variation in the accelerator loss models can be characterised as a systematic error.

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“…More recently, the different steps toward a numerical optimization for a smaller DFO (below 2 mm) has been presented in detail in [6], using Beam Delivery SIMulation (BDSIM) [7]. BDSIM is a geant4 based particle tracking and beam-matter interactions simulation code, that has already proven its ability to model low energy proton therapy systems [8]. This smaller DFO requirement forced the reduction of the nominal energy at the nozzle entrance from 105 to 80 MeV, leading to a smaller maximum achievable dose rate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upgrade of a proton therapy eye treatment nozzle using a cylindrical beam stopping device for enhanced dose rate performances

Gnacadja

Hernalsteens

Pauly

et al. 2023

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Proton therapy is a well established treatment method for ocular cancerous diseases. General-purpose multi-room systems which comprise eye-treatment beamlines must be thoroughly optimized to achieve the performances of fully dedicated systems in terms of depth-dose distal fall-off, lateral penumbra, and dose rate. For eye-treatment beamlines, the dose rate is one of the most critical clinical performances, as it directly defines the delivery time of a given treatment session. This delivery time must be kept as low as possible to reduce uncertainties due to undesired patient movement. We propose an alternative design of the Ion Beam Applications (IBA) Proteus Plus (P+) eye treatment beamline, which combines a beam-stopping device with the already existing scattering features of the beamline. The design is modelled with Beam Delivery SIMulation (BDSIM), a Geant4-based particle tracking and beam-matter interactions Monte-Carlo code, to demonstrate that it increases the maximum achievable dose rate by up to a factor 3 compared to the baseline configuration. An in-depth study of the system is performed and the resulting dosimetric properties are discussed in detail.

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A novel approach to seamless simulations of compact hadron therapy systems for self-consistent evaluation of dosimetric and radiation protection quantities

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

Self-consistent numerical evaluation of concrete shielding activation for proton therapy systems

Self-consistent numerical evaluation of concrete shielding activation for proton therapy systems

Concrete shielding activation for proton therapy systems using BDSIM and FISPACT-II

Upgrade of a proton therapy eye treatment nozzle using a cylindrical beam stopping device for enhanced dose rate performances

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