Speaker
Description
Heavy ion therapy represents one of the most advanced cancer treatment modalities, with carbon and helium beams offering superior dose conformality and enhanced radiobiological effectiveness compared to conventional photon therapy. However, the production of secondary neutrons through nuclear fragmentation processes poses a significant challenge for comprehensive patient safety assessment, particularly for vulnerable populations such as pediatric patients and pregnant women, where long-term secondary cancer risk evaluation is critical.
Current neutron dosimetry in hadron therapy facilities requires precise instrumentation adapted to near-clinical conditions. While moderation-based detectors such as rem-counters and Bonner spheres provide valuable data, they present several critical limitations: inadequate energy response requiring sensitivity from thermal energies to hundreds of MeV, and poor temporal resolution in pulsed or quasi-continuous beam delivery modes. Most critically, these detectors exhibit significant overestimation of neutron dose (up to a factor of two) caused by inherent sensitivity to secondary charged particles (protons, alphas) produced in the patient, representing a fundamental gap in current dosimetric capabilities for heavy ion therapy.
This presentation introduces ongoing research aimed at developing novel neutron detection technologies specifically engineered to address these challenges. We present a conceptual proposal and results in progress oriented toward generating neutron instrumentation capable of improving precision in out-of-field measurements while resolving the secondary charged particle sensitivity problem. The approach involves the LINremext3 dosimeter and NESTA spectrometer, featuring Monte Carlo-optimized designs for broad energy sensitivity (thermal to 10 GeV), innovative acquisition algorithms for high dose-rate pulsed fields, and millisecond temporal resolution with real-time data processing capabilities. The core innovation focuses on the development and integration of a novel charged particle veto system to achieve overestimation-free neutron dosimetry and spectrometry in heavy ion therapy environments.
These developments directly support the democratization of emerging hadron therapies by providing the accurate secondary dose assessment tools essential for robust treatment planning, comprehensive quality assurance, and reliable long-term risk evaluation in clinical environments.