Abstract
A novel design of a gantry for proton therapy is investigated in which a degrader and emittance limiting collimators are mounted on the gantry. Due to the interactions of protons in these components there will be an additional neutron dose at the location where a patient is positioned during a proton therapy. The results of numerical study of this additional dose are presented. Neutron prompt dose at the patient position is estimated through the Monte Carlo simulation using the MCNPX 2.7.0 particle transport code. Secondary neutron and photon fluxes from the distinct beam loss points are taken into consideration and the resulting dose is calculated using realistic estimates of beam losses. The dependence of the dose on the beam energy and individual impacts of each loss point on the total dose at the patient position as well as on critical beam line components are estimated and potential design constraints are discussed. It has been found that compared with a conventional gantry the expected additional dose is higher but the optimization of the beam line configuration and additional shielding shall help to reduce the dose to an acceptable value.
Highlights
A novel design of a gantry for proton therapy is investigated in which a degrader and emittance limiting collimators are mounted on the gantry
The existing energy degrader system (EDS) followed by an energy selection system (ESS), for example the one used at the Center for Proton Therapy at PSI [2] at the COMET cyclotron [3], typically require a space in the facility of about 10 m in length
The energy degrader is located on the gantry, right downstream from the normal conducting (NC) dipole, to minimize the impact of protons scattered on the degrader on the beam transport
Summary
A novel design of a gantry for proton therapy is investigated in which a degrader and emittance limiting collimators are mounted on the gantry. The proton beam of fixed energy delivered by the accelerator is first deflected by 45◦ by a normal conducting (NC) dipole and is directed towards the patient position by a compact superconducting (SC) magnet that provides the final 135◦ bend.
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