Focused very high-energy electron beams as a novel radiotherapy modality for producing high-dose volumetric elements

Kokurewicz, K. et al. (2019) Focused very high-energy electron beams as a novel radiotherapy modality for producing high-dose volumetric elements. Scientific Reports, 9, 10837. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46630-w) (PMID:31346184) (PMCID:PMC6658670)

Abstract

The increased inertia of very high-energy electrons (VHEEs) due to relativistic effects reduces scattering and enables irradiation of deep-seated tumours. However, entrance and exit doses are high for collimated or diverging beams. Here, we perform a study based on Monte Carlo simulations of focused VHEE beams in a water phantom, showing that dose can be concentrated into a small, well-defined volumetric element, which can be shaped or scanned to treat deep-seated tumours. The dose to surrounding tissue is distributed over a larger volume, which reduces peak surface and exit doses for a single beam by more than one order of magnitude compared with a collimated beam.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: We acknowledge support of the U.K. EPSRC (Grant No. EP/J018171/1, EP/J500094/1 and EP/N028694/1), the EC’s LASERLAB-EUROPE (Grant No. 654148), EuCARD-2 (Grant No. 312453), EuPRAXIA (Grant No. 653782), ARIES (Grant No. 730871) and the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) European Project. National Physical Laboratory’s Director’s Science and Engineering Fund and National Measurement System.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Chalmers, Professor Anthony
• Authors: Kokurewicz, K., Brunetti, E., Welsh, G.H., Wiggins, S.M., Boyd, M., Sorensen, A., Chalmers, A.J., Schettino, G., Subiel, A., DesRosiers, C., and Jaroszynski, D.A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cancer Sciences
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 9:10837
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License