Proton radiographs using position-sensitive silicon detectors and high-resolution scintillators

TL;DR

This paper presents a prototype proton radiography system using silicon detectors and scintillators, demonstrating its ability to produce high-resolution images and distinguish material differences, advancing proton therapy treatment planning.

Contribution

The study introduces a new proton radiography prototype with high spatial resolution and material sensitivity, paving the way for improved proton CT scanners in therapy planning.

Findings

Structures up to 2 mm are well resolved.

Sensitivity allows distinguishing 10 mm aluminum or PMMA thickness.

Prototype demonstrates potential for accurate proton imaging.

Abstract

Proton therapy is a cancer treatment technique currently in growth worldwide. It offers advantages with respect to conventional X-ray and $\gamma$-ray radiotherapy, in particular, a better control of the dose deposition allowing to reach a higher conformity in the treatments. Therefore, it causes less damage to the surrounding healthy tissue and less secondary effects. However, in order to take full advantage of its potential, improvements in treatment planning and dose verification are required. A new prototype of proton Computed Tomography scanner is proposed to design more accurate and precise treatment plans for proton therapy. Here, results obtained from an experiment performed using a 100-MeV proton beam at the CCB facility in Krakow (Poland) are presented. Proton radiographs of PMMA samples of 50-mm thickness with spatial patterns in aluminum were taken. Their properties were studied, including reproduction of the dimensions, spatial resolution and sensitivity to different materials. They demonstrate the capabilities of the system to produce images with protons. Structures of up to 2 mm are nicely resolved and the sensitivity of the system was enough to distinguish thicknesses of 10 mm of aluminum or PMMA. This constitutes a first step to validate the device as a proton radiography scanner previous to the future tests as a proton CT scanner.