Abstract
We have designed and modeled a novel optical system composed of a Laue lens coupled to an x-ray tube that produces a focused beam in an energy range near 100 keV (λ = 12.4 picometer). One application of this system is radiation therapy where it could enable treatment units that are considerably simpler and lower in cost than present technologies relying on linear accelerators. The Laue lens is made of Silicon Laue components which exploit the silicon pore optics technology. The lens concentrates photons to a small region thus allowing high dose rates at the focal area with very much lower dose rates at the skin and superficial regions. Monte Carlo simulations with Geant4 indicate a dose deposition rate of 0.2 Gy min−1 in a cylindrical volume of 0.7 mm diameter and 10 mm length, and a dose ratio of 72 at the surface (skin) compared to the focus placed 10 cm within a water phantom. Work is ongoing to newer generation crystal technologies to increase dose rate.
Highlights
Radiation therapy plays an essential role in the treatment of cancer, with more than 60% of patients receiving radiation therapy, mainly in the form of high-energy photons (2–20 MeV), in the course of their disease management (Atun et al 2015)
Monte Carlo simulations with Geant4 indicate a dose deposition rate of 0.2 Gy min−1 in a cylindrical volume of 0.7 mm diameter and 10 mm length, and a dose ratio of 72 at the surface compared to the focus placed 10 cm within a water phantom
While radiation therapy as a single-agent for cancer treatment may have reached the limits of its achievements, this modality is likely to be needed in the long term
Summary
1 cosine measurement systems, Oosteinde 36, 2361 HE Warmond, The Netherlands 2 Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, Postbus 9504, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands 3 Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, United States of America 4 School of Physics and Centre for Space Research, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland 5 Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Radiation Science and Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB. The Netherlands 6 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States of America.
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