https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06197-0
Regular Article
Dose comparison of slowing-down protons and secondary electrons by gold nanoparticle in proton therapy: simulation study
Plasma and Nuclear Fusion Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
a ftabbakh2000@yahoo.com, ftabbakh@aeoi.org.ir
Received:
7
November
2024
Accepted:
7
March
2025
Published online:
1
April
2025
A large number of researches on using gold nanoparticle in proton therapy have focused only on the effect of the secondary electrons in enhancing the radio-sensitization. Although experimental studies have addressed the significant impact of gold nanoparticles, simulations have shown that the electrons ejected from nanoparticles cause only a small enhancement within nanometer range from the nanoparticle, according to several publications. The disagreement has been explained in the present study by introducing the proton slowing-down mechanism as another contributor in dose enhancement in the presence of gold nanoparticles. The protons traversing the nanoparticles are slowed-down, leading to slight increase in their LET and, consequently, the extra dose induction in medium. This mechanism acts in a longer distance from gold nanoparticle within micrometer range. The contributions of both mechanisms to radio-sensitization enhancement have been compared, and the total elevated dose has been quantified. Additionally, the LET increase with respect to different nanoparticle sizes has been investigated.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
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.
