Imaging with protons at MedAustron

Abstract

Ion beam therapy has become a frequently applied form of cancer therapy over the last years. The advantage of ion beam therapy over conventional radiotherapy using photons is the strongly localized dose deposition, leading to a reduction of dose applied to surrounding healthy tissue. Currently, treatment planning for proton therapy is based on X-ray computed tomography, which entails certain sources of inaccuracy in alculation of the stopping power (SP). A more precise method to acquire the SP is to directly use high energy protons (or other ions such as carbon) and perform proton computed tomography (pCT). With this method, the ions are tracked prior to entering and after leaving the patient and finally their residual energy is measured at the very end. Therefore, an ion imaging demonstrator, comprising a tracking telescope made from double-sided silicon strip detectors and a range telescope as a residual energy detector, was set up. First measurements with this setup were performed at beam tests at MedAustron, a center for ion therapy and research in \mbox{Wiener Neustadt}, \mbox{Austria}. The facility provides three rooms for cancer treatment with proton beams as well as one which is dedicated to non-clinical research. This contribution describes the principle of ion imaging with proton beams in general as well as the design of the experimental setup. Moreover, first results from simulations and recent beam tests as well as ideas for future developments will be presented.