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Bragg peak characteristics of proton beams within therapeutic energy range and the comparison of stopping power using the GATE Monte Carlo simulation and the NIST data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2019

Shiva Zarifi Open the ORCID record for Shiva Zarifi [Opens in a new window] ,
Hadi Taleshi Ahangari Open the ORCID record for Hadi Taleshi Ahangari [Opens in a new window] ,
Sayyed Bijan Jia ,
Mohammad Ali Tajik-Mansoury ,
Milad Najafzadeh  and
Milad Peer Firouzjaei
Shiva Zarifi
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran
Hadi Taleshi Ahangari*
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran
Sayyed Bijan Jia
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Bojnord, Bojnord, Iran
Mohammad Ali Tajik-Mansoury
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran
Milad Najafzadeh
Affiliation:
Department of Radiology, Faculty of Para-Medicine, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandare-Abbas, Iran
Milad Peer Firouzjaei
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran
*
Author for correspondence: Hadi Taleshi Ahangari, Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran. Tel: +98 9127101772. E-mail: Taleshi@semums.ac.ir
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Abstract

Purpose:

To examine detail depth dose characteristics of ideal proton beams using the GATE Monte Carlo technique.

Methods:

In this study, in order to improve simulation efficiency, we used pencil beam geometry instead of parallel broad-field geometry. Depth dose distributions for beam energies from 5 to 250 MeV in a water phantom were obtained. This study used parameters named Rpeak, R90, R80, R73, R50, full width at half maximum (FWHM), width of 80–20% distal fall-off (W(80–20)) and peak-to-entrance ratio to represent Bragg peak characteristics. The obtained energy–range relationships were fitted into third-order polynomial formulae. The present study also used the GATE Monte Carlo code to calculate the stopping power of proton pencil beams in a water cubic phantom and compared results with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standard reference database.

Results:

The study results revealed deeper penetration, broader FWHM and distal fall-off and decreased peak-to-entrance dose ratio with increasing beam energy. Study results for monoenergetic proton beams showed that R73 can be a good indicator to characterise a range of incident beams. These also suggest FWHM is more sensitive than W(80–20) distal fall-off in finding initial energy spread. Furthermore, the difference between the obtained stopping power from simulation and NIST data almost in all energies was lower than 1%.

Conclusion:

Detail depth dose characteristics for monoenergetic proton beams within therapeutic energy ranges were reported. These results can serve as a good reference for clinical practitioners in their daily practice.

Keywords

Bragg peakdepth-doseGATE codeproton therapystopping power
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2020 , pp. 173 - 181
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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