https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04388-1
Regular Article
Evaluation of the effect of a 2D ripple filter on the averaged LET and RBE for proton and carbon ion beams: a Monte Carlo simulation study
1
Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, 200433, Shanghai, China
2
Institute of Radiation Medicine, Fudan University, 2094 Xietu Road, 200032, Shanghai, China
Received:
16
June
2023
Accepted:
16
August
2023
Published online:
26
August
2023
The ripple filter (RiFi), one of the passive energy modulators, is commonly used in carbon radiotherapy to enlarge the pristine Bragg peak width and reduce the irradiation time. In this work, the impact of a new 2D 6-mm RiFi on physical qualities of proton and carbon spread-out Bragg peaks (SOBP) was assessed, including averaged-linear energy transfer (LET), relative biological effectiveness (RBE), energy spectra, and beam spot size. The Geant4 Monte Carlo toolkit was used to carry out the simulation. Those qualities acquired with and without RiFi were compared. Results showed that for averaged-LET and RBE, the RiFi mainly affected the distal fall-off of the SOBP, with no significant impact on the plateau region and inner SOBP. Their values at the peak position were decreased. The RiFi increases the energy straggling of the primary particles passing through it. Additionally, the effect of RiFi on lower energy beams was more pronounced than on higher energy ones. Notably, while RiFi can modulate protons, it significantly increases the beam spot size. Overall, these findings hope to benefit the use of RiFi in proton and carbon radiotherapy.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
