Large energy acceptance beamlines for hadron therapy
Former OMA Fellow Jacinta Yap and colleagues from the Universities of Melbourne and Manchester have developed a new beamline design that could improve the efficiency of hadron therapy treatments.
The new design addresses a limitation in current beam delivery systems, which have a narrow momentum acceptance and slow energy switching times.
In hadron therapy, the ability to quickly adjust the energy of the beams is crucial for delivering precise doses to tumours.
However, the momentum acceptance of existing beamlines is typically small (less than 1%), which can limit the speed of energy switching. To address this, the researchers have proposed a "closed-dispersion arc" design with larger momentum acceptance, which could allow for faster adjustments during treatment.
The design, which uses Fixed Field Accelerator (FFA) optics, has been developed for proton beams with a momentum acceptance of up to +42% as part of the Technology for Ultra-Rapid Beam Operation (TURBO) project at the University of Melbourne. The team also introduced an algorithm for constructing permanent magnet Halbach arrays, which generate the necessary magnetic fields for this low energy test beamline, with a high degree of accuracy.
While this design has yet to be demonstrated for a clinical setting, the researchers believe caling up this concept could be a step toward more efficient proton therapy delivery systems. Further development and testing will be needed to fully assess the feasibility of this technology for medical use.
Full article:
Steinberg, A. F.; Appleby, R. B.; Yap, J. S. L.; Sheehy, S. L., “Design of a large energy acceptance beamline using fixed field accelerator optics”, PHYSICAL REVIEW ACCELERATORS AND BEAMS 27(7), 071601 (JUL 2024)