Evaluation of the Secondary Particle Effect in Inhomogeneous Media for Proton Therapy Using Geant4 Based MC Simulation

Park, So Hyun; Jung, Won Gyun; Rah, Jeong Eun; Park, Sungyong; Suh, Tae Suk

Abstract

In proton therapy, the analysis of secondary particles is important due to delivered dose outside the target volume and thus increased potential risk for the development of secondary cancer. The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of secondary particles from proton beams on fluence and energy deposition in the presence of inhomogeneous material by using Geant4 simulation toolkit. The inhomogeneity was modeled with the condition that the adipose tissue, bone and lung equivalent slab with thickness of 2 cm were inserted at 30% (Plateau region) and 80% (Bragg peak region) dose points of maximum dose in Bragg curve. The energy of proton was varied with 100, 130, 160 and 190 MeV for energy dependency. The results for secondary particles were presented for the fluence and deposited energy of secondary particles at inhomogeneous condition. Our study demonstrates that the fluence of secondary particles is neither influenced insertion of inhomogeneties nor the energy of initial proton, while there is a little effect by material density. The deposited energy of secondary particles has a difference in the position placed inhomogeneous materials. In the Plateau region, deposited energy of secondary particles mostly depends on the density of inserted materials. Deposited energy in the Bragg region, in otherwise, is influenced by both density of inserted material and initial energy of proton beams. Our results suggest a possibility of prediction about the distribution of secondary particles within complex heterogeneity.