An online monitor ionization chamber used in particle therapy

The clinical trials of tumor therapy using heavy ions beam 12C are now in progress at Institute of Modem Physics in Lanzhou. In order to achieve the precise radiotherapy with the high energy 12C beam in active pencil beam scanning mode, we have developed an ionization chamber(IC) as an online monitor for beam intensity and also a dosimeter after calibration. Through the choosing of working gas and voltage, optimizing of the electrics and the read-out system, calibrating the linearity, the detector system provide us one of the simple and highly reliable way to monitoring the beam during the active pencil beam scanning treatments. The measurement results of this detector system show that it could work well under the condition of high energy 12C beam in active pencil beam scanning mode. (authors)