Preliminary Study of a Large Energy Acceptance FFA Beam Delivery System for Particle Therapy

Abstract

The availability and use of ion beams for radiotherapy has grown significantly, led by technological developments to exploit the dosimetric advantages offered by charged particles. The benefits of particle therapy (PT) are well identified however its utilisation is still limited by high facility costs and technological challenges. A possibility to address both of these can be considered by improvements to the beam delivery system (BDS). Existing beamlines and gantries transport beams with a momentum range of ±1% and consequently, adjustments in depth or beam energy require all the magnetic fields to be changed. The speed to switch energies is a limiting constraint of the BDS and a determinant of the overall treatment time. A novel concept using fixed field alternating gradient (FFA) optics enables a large energy acceptance (LEA) as beams of varying energies can traverse the beamline at multiple physical positions given the same magnetic field. This presents the potential to provide faster, higher quality treatments at lower costs, with the capability to deliver advanced PT techniques such as multi-ion therapy. We explore the applicability and benefits of a LEA BDS.