München 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AKBP: Arbeitskreis Beschleunigerphysik

AKBP 5: Modern Proton Accelerators - Challenges and Perspektives

AKBP 5.1: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 19. März 2019, 11:00–11:30, HS 7

New Developments in Cyclotrons and Gantries for Proton Therapy — •Marco Schippers — Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland

After an introduction to proton therapy and the basic characteristics of cyclotrons for this application, the special role of the cyclotron in proton therapy will be discussed. It will be shown how modern technology like e.g. superconductivity is applied to make the cyclotron more compact and cheaper after its initial simplification from an accelerator for physics research into a medical device. However, it will also be shown how several of these developments could be a limitation in currently available successful treatment techniques.

To irradiate the tumor from different directions a gantry is used. This is a beam transport system mounted on a mechanical structure that can rotate around the patient. Due to the masses and sizes of the magnets for the beam transport, such a gantry has a typical diameter of 10-12 m and a mass of 100-200 tons. To reduce the associated costs of such gantries several groups are working on various new designs. The development of smaller and/or less heavy gantries requires the application of special techniques in the transport of charged particle beams.

In addition to a possible cost reduction, new technologies also enable possibilities to apply new irradiation techniques to achieve an often beneficially much faster irradiation treatment of a patient. Recent developments in this field will be discussed.