Simulation and experimental validation of a prototype electron beam linear accelerator for preclinical studies

Lansonneur, P.; Favaudon, Vincent; Heinrich, Sophie; Fouillade, Charles; Verrelle, Pierre; Marzi, Ludovic De

doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2019.03.016

Cited by 44 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This idea led Institut Curie (https://institut-curie. org/), who pioneered the research in this field [1,2,18], to look for a dedicated linac: the system ElectronFlash (in the following identified as EF) has been designed according to this request. The system is a research linac operating in electron mode only, with energies 5 and 7 MeV, and a dose rate ranging from 0.01 to 4,000 Gy/s and higher.…”

Section: System Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The roles of dose-per-pulse, instantaneous dose per pulse (dose per pulse divided by pulse duration), and pulse duration and frequency still remain to be understood. This is essentially due to the fact that the accelerators used up to now for in vivo FLASH experiments are electron accelerators designed for industrial use [18][19][20] or modified medical accelerators, where diffuser filters and monitor chambers have been mechanically dismounted and removed from the beam path [21]. Therefore, such accelerators are not able to perform beam parameters real-time monitoring as well as provide an accurate and reproducible output.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the dosimetry is complicated by the saturation problems typical of all clinical dosimeters which provide online information to these dose-per-pulse values. In all the experimental works published so far [18][19][20][21], the dosimetry was performed using independent dose-rate dosimeters, in most cases radiochromic films. Radiochromic films do not have the same accuracy of other detectors (for example ionization chambers), they do not provide online dosimetric information, and they are not able to control any changes in the output during the experiment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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FLASH Radiotherapy With Electrons: Issues Related to the Production, Monitoring, and Dosimetric Characterization of the Beam

Martino

Barca

Barone³

et al. 2020

Front. Phys.

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Various in vivo experimental works carried out on different animals and organs have shown that it is possible to reduce the damage caused to healthy tissue still preserving the therapeutic efficacy on the tumor tissue, by drastically reducing the total time of dose delivery (<200 ms). This effect, called the FLASH effect, immediately attracted considerable attention within the radiotherapy community, due to the possibility of widening the therapeutic window and treating effectively tumors which appear radioresistant to conventional techniques. Despite the experimental evidence, the radiobiological mechanisms underlying the FLASH effect and the beam parameters contributing to its optimization are not yet known in details. In order to fully understand the FLASH effect, it might be worthy to investigate some alternatives which can further improve the tools adopted so far, in terms of both linac technology and dosimetric systems. This work investigates the problems and solutions concerning the realization of an electron accelerator dedicated to FLASH therapy and optimized for in vivo experiments. Moreover, the work discusses the saturation problems of the most common radiotherapy dosimeters when used in the very high dose-per-pulse FLASH conditions and provides some preliminary experimental data on their behavior.

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Section: System Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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FLASH Radiotherapy With Electrons: Issues Related to the Production, Monitoring, and Dosimetric Characterization of the Beam

Martino

Barca

Barone³

et al. 2020

Front. Phys.

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“…To date, FLASH radiation therapy research has focused on finding pragmatic solutions that allow for the use of ultra-high dose rate beams in the research setting, but there has been limited focus on reference dosimetry under such conditions. There are limited data on the functionality of existing standard dosimeters when they are used to measure beams for FLASH irradiation [7,8,13,14]. It is important to establish if these dosimeters are appropriate when used for ultra-high dose rate application [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calorimeter for Real-Time Dosimetry of Pulsed Ultra-High Dose Rate Electron Beams

et al. 2020

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An aluminum calorimeter was investigated as a possible real-time dosimeter for electron beams with an ultra-high dose per pulse (DPP), as used in FLASH radiation therapy (a few Gy/pulse). Ionization chambers, the most widely used active dosimeter type in conventional external beam radiation therapy, suffer from large ion recombination losses at these conditions. Passive dosimeters, such as alanine, are independent of dose rate but do not provide real-time read-out. In this work it is shown that the response of alanine is independent of the DPP in the investigated ultra-high DPP range (up to 2.3 Gy/pulse). Alanine dose measurements were then used to determine the ion recombination correction for an Advanced Markus plane-parallel ionization chamber at ultra-high DPP. Ion collection losses larger than 50% were observed. Therefore, ionization chambers are not considered suitable for accurate dosimetry in FLASH radiation therapy. As an alternative, in a second (independent) experiment an aluminum open-to-atmosphere calorimeter, operated in the quasi-adiabatic mode was investigated at ultra-high DPP electron radiation. The beam pulse charge, and thus the DPP, was varied to evaluate the linearity of the calorimeter response in the DPP range between 0.3 and 1.8 Gy/pulse. On average, the standard deviation of the calorimeter response was 0.1%. The response was proportional to the DPP in the investigated range. The average deviation of the linear fit of the calorimeter dose as a function of the beam pulse charge was <0.5%. This preliminary investigation suggests that a simplified calorimeter design is suitable as a dosimeter with real-time read-out for clinical FLASH radiation therapy beams.

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“…Collamati and colleagues described the Geant4 simulation of a CMOS sensor for beta particles detection and its validation and Gillet et al discussed the validation of a new detector for CT dosimetry using GATE. Lansonneur et al [16] then described the GATE simulation and validation of dose obtained from a prototype of electron beam accelerator in the perspective of the interpretation of radiobiological experiments in FLASH irradiation. On a similar topic, Solovev et al presented Geant4 simulations allowing to set up radiobiological experiments with carbon ions at the U-70 synchrotron in Protvino, Russia.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Geant4 applications in medicine

2020

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The event gathered 111 participants from around the world. All participants had the opportunity to present their work in plenary oral sessions. This is the third iteration of the conference series (http://geant4.in2p3.fr) that was initiated in Bordeaux in 2005 under the auspices of the Geant4 collaboration (http://geant4.org). This series of conferences aims to gather Geant4/Geant4-based tool developers and users, in order to discuss Geant4 recent advances in medical physics and related topics (i.e. radiobiology).

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Simulation and experimental validation of a prototype electron beam linear accelerator for preclinical studies

Cited by 44 publications

References 32 publications

FLASH Radiotherapy With Electrons: Issues Related to the Production, Monitoring, and Dosimetric Characterization of the Beam

FLASH Radiotherapy With Electrons: Issues Related to the Production, Monitoring, and Dosimetric Characterization of the Beam

Calorimeter for Real-Time Dosimetry of Pulsed Ultra-High Dose Rate Electron Beams

Advances in Geant4 applications in medicine

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