Showing papers by "G.A.P. Cirrone published in 2009"

A PET Prototype for “In-Beam” Monitoring of Proton Therapy

Abstract: The in-beam PET is a novel PET application to image the beta+ activity induced in biological tissues by hadronic therapeutic beams. Thanks to the correlation existing between beam-delivered dose profiles and beam-induced activity profiles, in vivo information about the effective ion paths can be extracted from the in-beam pet image. in situ measurements, immediately after patient irradiation, are recommended in order to exploit the maximum statistics, by also detecting the contribution provided by the very short lived isotopes, e.g. 15O. A compact, dedicated tomograph should then be developed for such an application, so as to be used in the treatment room. We developed a small PET prototype in order to demonstrate the feasibility of such a technique for the monitoring of proton therapy of ocular tumors at the CATANA facility (Catania, Italy). The prototype consists of two planar heads with an active area of about 5 cm times 5 cm. Each head is made up of a square position sensitive photomultiplier (Hamamatsu H8500) coupled to a matrix of the same size of LYSO scintillating crystals (2 mm times 2 mm times 18 mm pixel dimensions). Dedicated, compact electronic boards are used for the signal multiplexing, amplification and digitization. The distance between the pair can be varied from 10 cm up to a maximum of about 20 cm. The validation of the prototype was performed on plastic phantoms using 62 MeV protons at the CATANA beam line. Different dose distributions were delivered and a good correlation between the distal fall-off of the activity profiles and of the dose profiles was found, i.e., better than 2 mm along the beam direction.

Medipix2 as a tool for proton beam characterization

Abstract: Proton therapy is a technique used to deliver a highly accurate and effective dose for the treatment of a variety of tumor diseases The possibility to have an instrument able to give online information could reduce the time necessary to characterize the proton beam To this aim we propose a detection system for online proton beam characterization based on the Medipix2 chip Medipix2 is a detection system based on a single event counter read-out chip, bump-bonded to silicon pixel detector The read-out chip is a matrix of 256×256 cells, 55×55 μm 2 each To demonstrate the capabilities of Medipix2 as a proton detector, we have used a 62 MeV flux proton beam at the CATANA beam line of the LNS-INFN laboratory The measurements performed confirmed the good imaging performances of the Medipix2 system also for the characterization of proton beams

Effects of nocodazole and ionizing radiation on cell proliferation and delayed luminescence

Abstract: 1 “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Biophysics Dept., Bucharest, Romania 2 National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering NIPNE-HH Bucharest, Romania 3 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare – Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy 4 Dip. di Metodologie Fisiche e Chimiche per l’Ingegneria, Universita di Catania, Italy 5 Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania E-mail: baran@ifin.nipne.ro

The Radiation Hardness Assurance Facility at INFN-LNS Catania for the Irradiation of Electronic Components in Air

Abstract: This paper describes the beam flux monitoring system that has been developed at the Superconducting Cyclotron at INFN-LNS (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy) in order to monitor the beam parameters such as energy, flux, beam profile, for SEE (Single Event Effects) cross-sections determination and DD (Displacement Damage) studies. In order to have an accurate and continuous monitoring of beam parameters we have developed fully automatic dosimetry setup to be used during SEE (with heavy ions) and DD (with protons up to 60 MeV) tests of electronic devices and systems. The final goal of our activity is to demonstrate that the operation of such a system in air is not detrimental to the accuracy on controlling the beam profile, energy and fluence delivered onto the DUT (Device Under Test) surface, even with non relativistic heavy ions. We have tested our beam monitoring system with the “Reference SEU monitor” developed by ESA/ESTEC, the results are discussed here.

Dosimetric and clinical experience in eye proton treatment at INFN‐LNS

Abstract: After six years of activity 155 patients have been treated inside the CATANA (Centro di AdroTerapia ed Applicazioni Nucleari Avanzate) facility CATANA is the first and unique proton therapy facility in which the 62 MeV proton beams, accelerated by a Superconducting Cyclotron, are used for the radio‐therapeutic treatments of choroidal and iris melanomas Inside CATANA new absolute and relative dosimetric techniques have been developed in order to achieve the best results in terms of treatment precision and dose release accuracy The follow‐up results for 42 patients demonstrated the efficacy of high energy protons in the radiotherapeutic field and encouraged us in our activity in the battle against cancer

First Results and Realization Status of a Proton Computed Radiography Device

Abstract: The PRIMA (PRoton IMAging) collaboration, supported by INFN and MIUR, is realizing a proton Computed Radiography device suitable to acquire the single proton with 1MHz rate for application in proton therapy. Its design and the first results obtained are presented.