"Entwicklung und Klinische Implementierung neuer Verfahren zur Dosismessung in der Strahlentherapie mit Schwerionen"

• Applicant: Dr. Mária Martisíková
• Subject Area: Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
• Term: from 2008 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 61233021

The first European hospital based ion beam therapy facility (HIT) started its operation in 2009 at the University of Heidelberg. The facility offers ideal possibilities to deliver a highly accurate and effective radiotherapy for a variety of tumour diseases. There is, however, still a need to raise the accuracy of the determination of dose applied to the patient to a similar level as in conventional radiation therapy with high energy photon beams. In particular, there is a need to improve the procedures by finding more efficient detectors, replacing the currently used ionization chambers providing limited spatial resolution. The aim of this project is to find a detector which would allow to determine the dose distribution nearly continuously in space and which would accommodate all the demands of safety and accuracy. Therefore we plan to examine dosimetric properties of new detectors comprising high spatial resolution and online readout, in particular pixelized semiconductorbased detectors, and to investigate their suitability for ion beam dosimetry. The technique of Monte Carlo simulations, which allows a direct calculation of the physical interactions in the detector, will be applied in order to understand the response of the detectors. Finally, the new detectors and dosimetry protocols have to be transferred to the clinical routine at the ion beam therapy facility in order to contribute to further improvements of ion beam therapy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants