https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05203-1
Regular Article
Characterization of a novel proton-CT scanner based on Silicon and LaBr
(Ce) detectors
1
Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC - Univ. de Valencia, 46980, Paterna, Valencia, Spain
2
Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, 28006, Madrid, Spain
3
Instytut Fizyki Jadrowej PAN, 31-342, Krakow, Poland
4
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, CEI Moncloa, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Received:
14
June
2023
Accepted:
20
April
2024
Published online:
10
May
2024
Treatment planning systems at proton-therapy centres entirely use X-ray computed tomography (CT) as primary imaging technique to infer the proton treatment doses to tumour and healthy tissues. However, proton stopping powers in the body, as derived from X-ray images, suffer from important proton-range uncertainties. In order to reduce this uncertainty in range, one could use proton-CT images instead. The main goal of this work is to test the capabilities of a newly-developed proton-CT scanner, based on the use of a set of tracking detectors and a high energy resolution scintillator for the residual energy of the protons. Different custom-made phantoms were positioned at the field of view of the scanner and were irradiated with protons at the CCB proton-therapy center in Krakow. We measured with the phantoms at different angles and produced sinograms that were used to obtain reconstructed images by Filtered Back-Projection. The obtained images were used to determine the capabilities of our scanner in terms of spatial resolution and proton Relative Stopping Power (RSP) mapping and validate its use as proton-CT scanner. The results show that the scanner can produce medium-high quality images, with spatial resolution better than 2 mm in radiography, below 3 mm in tomography and resolving power in the RSP comparable to other state-of-the-art pCT scanners.
© The Author(s) 2024
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