Thesis

Developing Multi-Beam FLASH with Proton Beams

• Call:

  ProtoTera Call 2021/1

• Academic Year:

  2021/2022

• Supervisor:

  Patrícia Gonçalves

• Co-Supervisor:

  Joao Seco

• Host Institution:

  LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Granting Degree Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico (Universidade de Lisboa)

• Typology:

  Mixed

• Abroad Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico (Universidade de Lisboa)

• Abroad Supervisor:

• Abstract:

  The rationale of radiotherapy has always been a trade-off between tumour control and healthy organ toxicity, where healthy organs are in many cases very sensitive to radiation. However, after recent developments in FLASH radiotherapy, this paradigm has been challenged due to a significant reduction in the toxicity of healthy organs. “FLASH” is based on very high dose-rate irradiation (dose rate ≥50 Gy/s), short beam-on times (≤100 ms) and large single doses (≥10 Gy) per beam. Recent clinical implementation of FLASH has been mostly focused on delivering a single beam with FLASH to treat cancers on the skin or in the extremities (hands and legs) with electron or proton beams. At the moment the clinical application of FLASH with proton beams is still being studied. In particular, it is still unknown how to perform FLASH with multi-beams, since single beam doses above 10Gy to 12Gy are not common in standard radiotherapy, because of the very high risk of radiation toxicity. In this project, the FLASH effect in protecting healthy tissues will thus be studied and treatment planning strategies with proton multi-beam irradiation will be investigated and proposed, including the combination of FLASH proton radiotherapy with other treatment delivery techniques, towards the maximization of treatment benefit.