Professor Carsten Welsch

In hadron beam therapy, knowledge of the detailed beam properties is essential to ensure effective dose delivery to the patient. Clinical settings currently implement interceptive ionization chambers which require daily calibration and suffer from slow response times. With new and emerging treatment techniques using ultra high dose rates, there is a demand for the development of novel beam monitors, which are fast, non-invasive and calibration-free.

Current methods to carry out this characterization require multiple systems each imparting a slight disturbance to the particle beam as it passes by. This disturbance can alter the intended transverse dose profile of the beam, ultimately creating slight deviations from a patient's treatment plan. QA methods are mostly disruptive measurements and do not allow treatment to take place at all whilst they are being conducted.

JetDose will develop a new in-vivo dosimetry system based on the re-application of technologies pioneered by the proposer's group. The underpinning technology was originally developed for use with low energy antiproton beams and most recently adapted for gas jet profiling for the high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In this system, a supersonic gas jet is fired across the high intensity proton beam at the LHC.

The gas molecules have little-to-no effect on the proton beam, however the proton beam excites the gas molecules; this excitation can be imaged, which is turn provides a complete non-invasive two-dimensional profile image of the proton beam.

JetDose will redirect this technology at the medical accelerator sector, by optimizing it for the different challenges found in a treatment facility. The non-invasive means of producing a profile image will allow the monitor to be run online alongside treatment operation. As the intensity in the images directly depends upon the beam intensity, and therefore the dose, an image collected with this system provides an in-vivo dose map of the beam being delivered to the patient.

The focus of the project will be the design, development, and testing of an optimized medical version of the system with established clinical and business partners. Testing and optimization will be done in close collaboration with long-standing research partners Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Fondazione CNAO in Italy. The design, development, and future commercialization will be conducted in collaboration with the UK-based accelerator beam diagnostics company D-Beam Ltd, STFC CERN BIC graduate and recently identified as an STFC IAA success story. Commercialization plans will be progressed with leading OEM manufacturer IBA.

JetDose will produce a novel monitoring system which addresses the growing need for in-vivo dosimetry in medical facilities across the world. This technology also shows good promise for application at other high intensity, high energy particle accelerators and this wider market will be assessed as part of the business plan that will be developed.