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2.7
Journals
Instruments
Special Issues
Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring
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Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring

A special issue of Instruments (ISSN 2410-390X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2018) | Viewed by 15916

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Carsten Welsch

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Guest Editor
Head of the Physics Department, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Interests: accelerator design and optimization; beam instrumentation; optical sensors
Dr. Christian Graeff

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Biophysics Department, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
Interests: proton beams for medical applications; patient imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Monica Necchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The National Centre of Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO), Pavia, Italy
Interests: carbon ion therapy; accelerator operation; integration of beam instrumentation; control system optimization
Dr. Julien Smeets

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Ion Beam Applications (IBA), Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
Interests: prompt gamma cameras; data analysis; patient imaging techniques; instrumentation R&D and control system integration
Prof. Joaquin Gomez Camacho

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (CNA), Spain
Interests: accelerator applications; AMS; beam diagnostics for proton and ion beam; beam-cell interaction studies; medical applications

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Optimization of Medical Accelerators (OMA) project aims to train the next generation of radiotherapy specialists and to optimize cancer treatment using ion beams. The project has received four million Euro of funding to employ fifteen fellows who undertake research projects at leading research centers, universities and industry. A series of topical workshops and schools have been realized as part of the wider training for the OMA Fellows. The 2nd OMA Topical Workshop on ‘Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring’ took place at CERN on 4–5 June 2018. It focused on the particular challenges and synergies in advanced imaging techniques, both for monitoring the beam used for treatment, as well as the patient. The workshop brought together around 50 experts in charged particle beam diagnostics, control system development, and patient imaging. Technologies for non-invasive beam imaging were presented, as well as innovations based on prompt gamma imaging and 4D patient monitoring.

This Special Issue collects original scientific contributions that were presented at the workshop on the latest developments of diagnostics for beam and patient imaging.

The OMA project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement Number 675265.

Prof. Carsten Welsch
Dr. Christian Graeff
Dr. Monica Necchi
Dr. Julien Smeets
Prof. Joaquin Gomez Camacho
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Instruments is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Radiotherapy
  • Accelerators
  • Hadrontherapy
  • beam diagnostics
  • imaging techniques

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 7397 KiB  
Article
Development of the LHCb VELO Detector Modules into a Standalone, Non-Invasive Online Beam Monitor for Medical Accelerators
by Roland Schnuerer, Jacinta Yap, Hao Zhang, Tomasz Cybulski, Tony Smith, Guido Haefeli, Olivier Girard, Tomasz Szumlak and Carsten Welsch
Instruments 2019, 3(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments3010001 - 21 Dec 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4329
Abstract
Knowledge of the beam properties in proton therapy through beam monitoring is essential, ensuring an effective dose delivery to the patient. In clinical practice, currently used interceptive ionisation chambers require daily calibration and suffer from a slow response time. A new non-invasive method [...] Read more.
Knowledge of the beam properties in proton therapy through beam monitoring is essential, ensuring an effective dose delivery to the patient. In clinical practice, currently used interceptive ionisation chambers require daily calibration and suffer from a slow response time. A new non-invasive method for dose online monitoring is under development based on the silicon multi-strip sensor LHCb VELO (VErtex LOcator), originally used for the LHCb experiment at CERN. The proposed method relies on proton beam halo measurements. Several changes in the system setup were necessary to operate the VELO module as a standalone system outside of the LHC environment and are described in this paper. A new cooling, venting and positioning system was designed. Several hardware and software changes realised a synchronised readout with a locally constructed Faraday Cup and the RF frequency of a medical cyclotron with quasi-online monitoring. The adapted VELO module will be integrated at the 60 MeV proton therapy beamline at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC), UK and the capability as a beam monitor will be assessed by measuring the beam current and by monitoring the beam profile along the beamline in spring 2019. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring)
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13 pages, 3283 KiB  
Article
Feasibility Study of a Proton Irradiation Facility for Radiobiological Measurements at an 18 MeV Cyclotron
by Anna Baratto-Roldán, María del Carmen Jiménez-Ramos, Maria Cristina Battaglia, Javier García-López, María Isabel Gallardo, Miguel A. Cortés-Giraldo and José M. Espino
Instruments 2018, 2(4), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments2040026 - 16 Nov 2018
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4115
Abstract
A feasibility study of an experimental setup for the irradiation of biological samples at the cyclotron facility installed at the National Centre of Accelerators (Seville, Spain) is presented. This cyclotron, which counts on an external beam line for interdisciplinary research purposes, produces an [...] Read more.
A feasibility study of an experimental setup for the irradiation of biological samples at the cyclotron facility installed at the National Centre of Accelerators (Seville, Spain) is presented. This cyclotron, which counts on an external beam line for interdisciplinary research purposes, produces an 18 MeV proton beam, which is suitable for the irradiation of mono-layer cultures for the measurement of proton cell damages and Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) at energies below the beam nominal value. Measurements of this kind are of interest for proton therapy, since the variation of proton RBE at the distal edge of the Bragg curve may have implications in clinical proton therapy treatments. In the following, the characteristics of the beam line and the solutions implemented for the irradiation of biological samples are described. When dealing with the irradiation of cell cultures, low beam intensities and broad homogeneous irradiation fields are required, in order to assure that all the cells receive the same dose with a suitable dose rate. At the cyclotron, these constraints have been achieved by completely defocusing the beam, intercepting the beam path with tungsten scattering foils and varying the exit-window-to-sample distance. The properties of the proton beam thus obtained have been analysed and compared with Monte Carlo simulations. The results of this comparison, as well as the experimental measurement of the lateral dose profiles expected at the position of samples are presented. Meaningful dose rates of about 2–3 Gy/min have been obtained. Homogeneous lateral dose profiles, with maximum deviations of 5%, have been measured at a distance of approximately 50 cm in air from the exit window, placing a tungsten scattering foil of 200 μm in the beam path. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring)
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12 pages, 1951 KiB  
Article
Correction of Geometrical Effects of a Knife-Edge Slit Camera for Prompt Gamma-Based Range Verification in Proton Therapy
by Johannes Petzoldt, Guillaume Janssens, Lena Nenoff, Christian Richter and Julien Smeets
Instruments 2018, 2(4), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments2040025 - 10 Nov 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3046
Abstract
Prompt gamma (PG) based range verification can potentially reduce the safety margins in proton therapy. A knife-edge slit camera has been developed in this context using analytical PG simulations as reference for absolute range verification during patient treatment. Geometrical deviations between measurement and [...] Read more.
Prompt gamma (PG) based range verification can potentially reduce the safety margins in proton therapy. A knife-edge slit camera has been developed in this context using analytical PG simulations as reference for absolute range verification during patient treatment. Geometrical deviations between measurement and simulation could be observed and have to be corrected for in order to improve the range retrieval of the system. A geometrical correction model is derived from Monte Carlo simulations in water. The influence of different parameters is tested and the model is validated in a dedicated benchmark experiment. We found that the geometrical correction improves the agreement between measured and simulated PG profiles resulting in an improved range retrieval and higher accuracy for absolute range verification. An intrinsic offset of 1.4 mm between measurement and simulation is observed in the experimental data and corrected in the PG simulation. In summary, the absolute range verification capabilities of a PG camera have been improved by applying a geometrical correction model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring)
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17 pages, 12213 KiB  
Article
Dielectric-Filled Reentrant Cavity Resonator as a Low-Intensity Proton Beam Diagnostic
by Sudharsan Srinivasan and Pierre-André Duperrex
Instruments 2018, 2(4), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/instruments2040024 - 07 Nov 2018
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3965
Abstract
Measurement of the proton beam current (0.1–40 nA) at the medical treatment facility PROSCAN at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) is performed with ionization chambers. To mitigate the scattering issues and to preserve the quality of the beam delivered to the patients, a [...] Read more.
Measurement of the proton beam current (0.1–40 nA) at the medical treatment facility PROSCAN at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) is performed with ionization chambers. To mitigate the scattering issues and to preserve the quality of the beam delivered to the patients, a non-interceptive monitor based on the principle of a reentrant cavity resonator has been built. The resonator with a fundamental resonance frequency of 145.7 MHz was matched to the second harmonic of the pulse repetition rate (72.85 MHz) of the beam extracted from the cyclotron. This was realized with the help of ANSYS HFSS (High Frequency Structural Simulator) for network analysis. Both, the pickup position and dielectric thickness were optimized. The prototype was characterized with a stand-alone test bench. There is good agreement between the simulated and measured parameters. The observed deviation in the resonance frequency is attributed to the frequency dependent dielectric loss tangent. Hence, the dielectric had to be resized to tune the resonator to the design resonance frequency. The measured sensitivity performances were in agreement with the expectations. We conclude that the dielectric reentrant cavity resonator is a promising candidate for measuring low proton beam currents in a non-destructive manner. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring)
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