Fast dose deposition calculations for proton therapy

Patient 3D reconstruction based on high-resolution Computed Tomography scans: cut-out showing the location (in red) of the tumoral mass.
Three-slice projections of the dose map delivered to the patient.

 

Charged particle cancer therapy based on intensity modulated pencil beams is an effective cure for localised tumours that cannot be treated surgically with standard techniques because patient anatomy prevents surgery, or because the tumours are too close to critical organs, or they are highly radio-resistant.

The approach consists in delivering the prescribed dose throughout the target volume by superposition of many thousands of individually weighted pencil beams.

The main advantage of the technique resides in the capability of delivering a highly-conformal dose distribution to arbitrarily shaped tumours. The success of particle therapy is based on the accurate modelling of physical and biological dose released in human tissues.

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