Physical aspects of heavy charged particle beams for radiotherapy

Physical properties of heavy ion beams are discussed to improve the physical dose distributions in view of radiotherapy. Preservation of the structural and functional integrity of adjacent normal tissue is required to achieve great probability of tumor control. This will be accomplished with the reduction of irradiated volume of normal tissues and with greater relative biological effectiveness (RBE) on tumor cells than that on surrounding normal cells. This suggests the use of heavy ion beams as new source of radiation that increases the therapeutic ratio. The basis of the improvement in the physical dose distribution by use of heavy charged particles is due to the finite range of the beams and to the less multiple coulomb scattering of the particles having a heavier atomic mass than proton. The depth dose distributions and dose profiles of heavy particle beams are discussed in this article. The lateral sharpness of heavy charged particles is comparable to the penumbra of high energy photon and electron beams and is not of clinical concern due to less coulomb scattering of heavy ions to lateral direction in traversing a medium. The dose gradient at the end of range of primary beam is dependent upon the energy spread and range straggling of the particles. The magnitude of range straggling is nearly proportional to the range and inversely proportional to the inverse square root of the particle mass. Heavy ion beams also undergo nuclear interactions, in which the primary beam may produce lower atomic number particles. Therefore, the dose beyond the Bragg peak is due to those fragments. Fragmentation increases as a function of the atomic mass to the 2/3 power and with the energy of the particles. Thus, the production of fragments diminishes the depth dose advantages of heavy ions. The choice of ion for radiotherapy may depend on evaluation of important parameter for tumor control. (J.P.N.)