Ricerc@Sapienza

The goal of the radiation therapy is to destroy cancer cells, minimising the damage to healthy tissues and other side effects. The "FLASH" therapy, an innovative technique in radiation therapy, has shown that short pulses of electron and X ray beams at very high dose rates are less harmful to healthy tissues but just as efficient as conventional dose rate radiation to inhibit cancer growth.

The FLASH technique is being investigated with the use of external beams with ultra-high doses and ultra-high speeds. The FLASH effect is indeed observed at mean dose rates larger than 40 Gy/s delivered in less than one second (100-500 ms) unlike conventional radiotherapy where typical dose rates are of the order of few cGy/s released in a few to tens of minutes. Furthermore, the total number of needed sessions with FLASH therapy could be potentially reduced to only one.

In order to achieve the FLASH therapy requirements, we propose to investigate the use of a linear accelerator (Linac) for the production of electron beams with pulsed currents of the order of 100 mA in bursts of few microseconds as a viable solution. We will perform a feasibility study and carry out the prototype construction of a compact, cost-effective C-band Linac with high current and maximum energy of about 9 MeV. The prototype will be tested in our laboratory at low power to characterize all the radiofrequency properties of the structures.

The 9 MeV maximum energy is suitable for operation with the current IORT protocols to treat superficial cancer, for which we will perform a dosimetry study. Moreover, in order to design a detector capable of monitoring with the due precision beams of very high intensities, a dedicated simulation will be developed using state of the art Monte-Carlo software tools such as FLUKA developed at CERN and INFN, or FRED, developed in our department.