title: Monitoring of Hadrontherapy Treatments by Means of Charged Particle Detection.
abstract: The interaction of the incoming beam radiation with the patient body in hadrontherapy treatments produces secondary charged and neutral particles, whose detection can be used for monitoring purposes and to perform an on-line check of beam particle range. In the context of ion-therapy with active scanning, charged particles are potentially attractive since they can be easily tracked with a high efficiency, in presence of a relatively low background contamination. In order to verify the possibility of exploiting this approach for in-beam monitoring in ion-therapy, and to guide the design of specific detectors, both simulations and experimental tests are being performed with ion beams impinging on simple homogeneous tissue-like targets (PMMA). From these studies, a resolution of the order of few millimeters on the single track has been proven to be sufficient to exploit charged particle tracking for monitoring purposes, preserving the precision achievable on longitudinal shape. The results obtained so far show that the measurement of charged particles can be successfully implemented in a technology capable of monitoring both the dose profile and the position of the Bragg peak inside the target and finally lead to the design of a novel profile detector. Crucial aspects to be considered are the detector positioning, to be optimized in order to maximize the available statistics, and the capability of accounting for the multiple scattering interactions undergone by the charged fragments along their exit path from the patient body. The experimental results collected up to now are also valuable for the validation of Monte Carlo simulation software tools and their implementation in Treatment Planning Software packages.
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Milano , Milano , Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muraro
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Milano , Milano , Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Battistoni
authors.affiliation: Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN , Frascati , Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Collamati
authors.affiliation: Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN , Frascati , Italy.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Lucia
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Faccini
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferroni
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy; UTTMAT, ENEA, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per Ingegneria, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; Istituto di Ricerche Cliniche Ecomedia, Empoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frallicciardi
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy; Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "E. Fermi", Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marafini
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Milano , Milano , Italy.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mattei
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morganti
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma , Roma , Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paramatti
authors.affiliation: Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN , Frascati , Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Piersanti
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma , Roma , Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pinci
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per Ingegneria, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rucinski
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Russomando
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per Ingegneria, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "E. Fermi", Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarti
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per Ingegneria, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "E. Fermi", Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Adalberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sciubba
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Solfaroli-Camillocci
authors.affiliation: Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN , Frascati , Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toppi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Traini
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma , Roma , Italy.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Voena
authors.affiliation: INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per Ingegneria, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy; Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "E. Fermi", Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Patera
keywords: hadrontherapy; particle detection; real time monitoring