Moving from organ dose to microdosimetry: contribution of the Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

When living cells are irradiated by charged particles, a wide variety of interactions occurs that leads to a deep modification of the biological material. To understand the fine structure of the microscopic distribution of the energy deposits, Monte Carlo event-by-event simulations are particularly suitable. However, the development of these track structure codes needs accurate interaction cross sections for all the electronic processes: ionization, excitation, Positronium formation (for incident positrons) and even elastic scattering. Under these conditions, we have recently developed a Monte Carlo code for electrons and positrons in water, this latter being commonly used to simulate the biological medium. All the processes are studied in detail via theoretical differential and total cross sections calculated by using partial wave methods. Comparisons with existing theoretical and experimental data show very good agreements. Moreover, this kind of detailed description allows one access to a useful microdosimetry, which can be coupled to a geometrical modelling of the target organ and then provide a detailed dose calculation at the nanometric scale.