Plug’n’play proton radiography with commercial QA equipment - A first hand practical how-to

Abstract

International audienceProton imaging has long been proposed as alternative or complementary imaging modality in ion beam therapy offering a direct probe of the relative stopping power. However, it is yet to see an integration into the clinical workflow. Several groups around the world are working on the technical implementation of proton radiography/tomography set-ups based on more or less complex hardware designs. Many of these set-ups come along with prerequisites for the treatment facility: coupling with trigger output from the accelerator, unusually low particle fluence, additional integration of dedicated hardware. Furthermore, many set-ups rely on non-certified prototype hardware components. These factors limit the immediate accessibility of proton imaging in ion beam therapy facilities. In this contribution, we will report about a recent series of experiments conducted at the Institut Curie - Proton Therapy Center in Orsay, France. We acquired proton radiographies of various phantoms, using a commercial range telescope available in the facility. The detector was operated in free running mode and standard beam parameters were used, rendering the set-up plug’n’play. We will further elucidate the dedicated data and image processing involved to produce proton radiographies from the raw data and illustrate the good image quality which can be reached even with such a comparatively simple set-up. The purpose of this contribution is to share a first hand practical how-to and to encourage the idea that proton radiographic imaging can be realized with reasonable effort employing hardware already available in ion beam therapy facilities for quality assurance and/or positioning applications