Measuring the Impact of Nuclear Interaction in Particle Therapy and in Radio Protection in Space: the FOOT Experiment

Battistoni, G.; Toppi, M.; Patera, V.

doi:10.3389/fphy.2020.568242

Cited by 32 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…The goal of the FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment [127] is to perform cross section measurements of nuclear fragmentation of projectiles and targets that are rel-evant for particle therapy and radiation protection in space. Specifically, FOOT will measure double differential (with respect to fragment kinetic energy and production angle) cross sections, using thin tissue-like (C, O, H) targets and light (Z ≤ 8) projectiles with energies in the range 100-800 MeV/nucleon.…”

Section: Foot: Nuclear Cross Section Measurements For Hadron Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in particle and nuclei identification techniques in nuclear physics experiments

et al. 2022

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Particle identification techniques are fundamental tools in nuclear physics experiments. Discriminating particles or nuclei produced in nuclear interactions allows to better understand the underlying physics mechanisms. The energy interval of these reactions is very broad, from sub-eV up to TeV. For this reason, many different identification approaches have been developed, often combining two or more observables. This paper reviews several of these techniques with emphasis on the expertise gained within the current nuclear physics scientific program of the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN).

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Section: Foot: Nuclear Cross Section Measurements For Hadron Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in particle and nuclei identification techniques in nuclear physics experiments

et al. 2022

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“…The goal of the FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) experiment [12] is to provide double differential cross section measurements with respect to kinetic energy and direction for beams and targets of interest for particle therapy. Using a fixed target setup, all relevant characteristics of fragments produced in thin tissue-like targets will be measured for a variety of particle beams.…”

Section: R a F Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Particle therapy is an external beam radiotherapy technique that uses charged particles (mostly protons or 12 C ions) for tumor treatment. Thanks to their typical depth-dose profile (Bragg peak), more conformal dose distributions can be realized with charged particle therapy than with conventional radiotherapy [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Charge identification of nuclear fragments with the FOOT Time-Of-Flight system

Kraan

Zarrella

Alexandrov

et al. 2021

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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FOOT (FragmentatiOn Of Target) is an applied nuclear physics experiment designed for measuring with high precision the production cross sections of nuclear fragments for energies, beams and targets relevant in particle therapy and radioprotection in space. These measurements are important to estimate the physical and biological effects of nuclear fragments, which are produced when energetic particle beams penetrate human tissue.A component of the FOOT experiment is the ∆E-TOF system, which is designed to measure energy loss and time-of-flight of nuclear fragments produced in particle collisions in thin targets in order to extract their charge and velocity. The ∆E-TOF system is composed of a start counter, providing the start time for the time-of-flight, and a 40×40 cm 2 wall of thin plastic scintillator bars, providing the stop time and energy loss of the fragments passing through the detector. Particle charge discrimination can be achieved by correlating the energy loss in the scintillator bars with the measured time-of-flight.Recently, we have built a full-scale ∆E-TOF detector prototype. In this work, we describe the energy and time-of-flight calibration procedure and assess the performance of the ∆E-TOF prototype. We use data acquired during beam tests at CNAO with proton and 12 C beams and at GSI with 16 O beams in the energy range relevant for particle therapy, from 60 to 400 MeV/u. For heavy fragments (C and O), we obtain energy and time resolutions ranging from 4.0 to 5.2% and from 54 to 84 ps, respectively. The procedure is also applied to a fragmentation measurement of a 400 MeV/u 16 O beam on a 5 mm carbon target, showing that the system is capable of discriminating the charges of impinging fragments.

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“…Recently, the research activity within the MoVe-IT (Modeling and Verification for Ion beam Treatment planning [ 29 ]) collaboration was including in its focus the evaluation of the biological impact of such target fragments; in parallel, the FOOT (Fragmentation Of Target) [ 30 , 31 , 32 ] experiment started, aiming at the production of a large dataset of fragmentation cross-sections that would fill the current gaps.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Impact of Target Fragments on Proton Treatment Plans: An Analysis Based on the Current Cross-Section Data and a Full Mixed Field Approach

Bellinzona

Grzanka

Attili

et al. 2021

Cancers

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Clinical routine in proton therapy currently neglects the radiobiological impact of nuclear target fragments generated by proton beams. This is partially due to the difficult characterization of the irradiation field. The detection of low energetic fragments, secondary protons and fragments, is in fact challenging due to their very short range. However, considering their low residual energy and therefore high LET, the possible contribution of such heavy particles to the overall biological effect could be not negligible. In this context, we performed a systematic analysis aimed at an explicit assessment of the RBE (relative biological effectiveness, i.e., the ratio of photon to proton physical dose needed to achieve the same biological effect) contribution of target fragments in the biological dose calculations of proton fields. The TOPAS Monte Carlo code has been used to characterize the radiation field, i.e., for the scoring of primary protons and fragments in an exemplary water target. TRiP98, in combination with LEM IV RBE tables, was then employed to evaluate the RBE with a mixed field approach accounting for fragments’ contributions. The results were compared with that obtained by considering only primary protons for the pristine beam and spread out Bragg peak (SOBP) irradiations, in order to estimate the relative weight of target fragments to the overall RBE. A sensitivity analysis of the secondary particles production cross-sections to the biological dose has been also carried out in this study. Finally, our modeling approach was applied to the analysis of a selection of cell survival and RBE data extracted from published in vitro studies. Our results indicate that, for high energy proton beams, the main contribution to the biological effect due to the secondary particles can be attributed to secondary protons, while the contribution of heavier fragments is mainly due to helium. The impact of target fragments on the biological dose is maximized in the entrance channels and for small α/β values. When applied to the description of survival data, model predictions including all fragments allowed better agreement to experimental data at high energies, while a minor effect was observed in the peak region. An improved description was also obtained when including the fragments’ contribution to describe RBE data. Overall, this analysis indicates that a minor contribution can be expected to the overall RBE resulting from target fragments. However, considering the fragmentation effects can improve the agreement with experimental data for high energy proton beams.

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Measuring the Impact of Nuclear Interaction in Particle Therapy and in Radio Protection in Space: the FOOT Experiment

Cited by 32 publications

References 68 publications

Trends in particle and nuclei identification techniques in nuclear physics experiments

Trends in particle and nuclei identification techniques in nuclear physics experiments

Charge identification of nuclear fragments with the FOOT Time-Of-Flight system

Biological Impact of Target Fragments on Proton Treatment Plans: An Analysis Based on the Current Cross-Section Data and a Full Mixed Field Approach

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