Investigation of tissue equivalence of phantom biomaterials in 4He heavy ion therapy

Abstract

The increase in heavy ion therapy centers worldwide has triggered the search for new ion types. It has been seen that there is an urgent need for the application of robust biophysical readings, especially to evaluate the radiological properties of different ions. Interest in the use of helium ions, one of these ions, for radiotherapy has increased. Due to the absence of an experimental ion beam line, this study was simulated with the help of the Monte Carlo-based Transport of Ions in Matter system and biophysically evaluated ionization, recoils-based models. This evaluation was made in soft tissue and phantoms created with water and PMMA biomaterials, which are the closest biomaterials to soft tissue. In the analysis, it was formed in the PMMA biomaterial with an average difference of 6.6% at the Bragg peak position closest to the soft tissue. It was PMMA with an average difference of 14.5% in recoils, 23.3% in collision events parameters and 21.5% in lateral scattering. The main innovation that this study will provide to the literature is not only ionization but also biophysical analysis by considering recoils, collision events and lateral scattering. Thus, biomaterial, which is the most ideal soft tissue equivalent to be used instead of soft tissue in 4He therapy, was evaluated by calculating all interactions.