SU-E-T-544: Microscopic Dose Enhancement of Gold Nanoparticles in Water for Proton Therapy: A Simulation Study

Purpose: To quantify the microscopic dose and linear energy transfer (LET) enhancement of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in water for proton therapy. Methods: The GEANT4 toolkit (version 10) with low energy electromagnetic classes was used to create a series of simulations where three radii (r=5, 20, 100 nm) of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) were irradiated with 5 × 106 80 MeV protons. A cubic detector (10 × 10 × 10 um, divided in 25 × 25 × 25 voxels) were placed in a water phantom where the GNP rests in the center. The size of incident proton beam was set to be same as the GNPs and perpendicularly aiming to the target. Dose deposited to each voxel were recorded to calculate the overall deposited dose and the dose-averaged LET. The emitted secondary electron spectra were also collected in a spherical customized scorer (radius = 150 nm). Results: The average dose from a single GNP in a cubic water phantom was increased by 0.12 %, 1.12% and 2.3% and the mean dose-averaged LET was increased by 5.87% and 27.67% and 0.31% for GNP radius of 5 nm, 20 nm and 100 nm, respectively. Conclusion: The dose enhancement effect from the presence of a single GNP was qualified in a water phantom. A significant increase in the mean dose-averaged LET was found for 20 nm GNP