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Dose Enhancement by Gold Nanoparticles Around the Bragg Peak of Proton Beams


J Kwon

J Kwon1*, K Sutherland1 , T Hashimoto2 , H Peng3 , L Xing3 , H Shirato4 , H Date5 , (1) Department of Medical Physics, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, (2) Department of Radiation Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, (3) Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University and Global Station for Quantum Medical Science and Engineering, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, (4) Department of Radiation Medicine, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine and Global Station for Quantum Medical Science and Engineering, Global Institution for Collaborative Research and Education (GI-CoRE), Hokkaido University, (5) Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University

Presentations

TU-H-CAMPUS-TeP3-3 (Tuesday, August 2, 2016) 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM Room: ePoster Theater


Purpose: To make clear the spatial distribution of dose enhancement around gold nanoparticles (GNPs) located near the proton Bragg peak, and to evaluate the potential of GNPs as a radio sensitizer.

Methods: The dose enhancement by electrons emitted from GNPs under proton irradiation was estimated by Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit in two steps. In an initial macroscopic step, 100 and 195 MeV proton beams were incident on a water cube, 30 cm on a side. Energy distributions of protons were calculated at four depths, 50% and 75% proximal to the Bragg peak, 100% peak, and 75% distal to the peak (P50, P75, Peak, and D75, respectively). In a subsequent microscopic step, protons with the energy distribution calculated above were incident on a 20 nm diameter GNP in a nanometer-size water box and the spatial distribution of dose around the GNP was determined for each energy distribution. The dose enhancement factor (DEF) was also deduced.

Results: The dose enhancement effect was spread to several tens of nanometers in the both depth and radial directions. The enhancement area increased in the order of P50, P75, Peak, and D75 for both cases with 100 and 195 MeV protons. In every position around the Bragg peak, the 100 MeV beam resulted in a higher dose enhancement than the 195 MeV beam. At P75, the average and maximum DEF were 3.9 and 17.0 for 100 MeV, and 3.5 and 16.2 for 195 MeV, respectively. These results indicate that lower energy protons caused higher dose enhancement in this incident proton energy range.

Conclusion: The dose enhancement around GNPs spread as the position in the Bragg peak region becomes deeper and depends on proton energy. It is expected that GNPs can be used as a radio sensitizer with consideration of the location and proton beam energy.


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