Implementation and verification of nuclear interactions in a Monte-Carlo code for the Procom-ProGam proton therapy planning system

Proton interaction with an exposed object material needs to be modeled with account for three basic processes: electromagnetic stopping of protons in matter, multiple coulomb scattering and nuclear interactions. Just the last type of processes is the topic of this paper. Monte Carlo codes are often used to simulate high-energy particle interaction with matter. However, nuclear interaction models implemented in these codes are rather extensive and their use in treatment planning systems requires huge computational resources. We have selected the IThMC code for its ability to reproduce experiments which measure the distribution of the projected ranges of nuclear secondary particles generated by proton beams in a multi-layer Faraday cup. The multi-layer Faraday cup detectors measure charge rather than dose and allow distinguishing between electromagnetic and nuclear interactions. The event generator used in the IThMC code is faster, but less accurate than any other used in testing. Our model of nuclear reactions demonstrates quite good agreement with experiment in the context of their effect on the Bragg peak in therapeutic applications