Development of Continuous Line Scanning System Prototype for Proton Beam Therapy

Purpose: Taking advantage of the continuous, high-intensity beam of the cyclotron at the National Cancer Center Hospital East, we developed a continuous line scanning system (CLSS) prototype for prostate cancer in collaboration with Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd (Tokyo, Japan).

Materials and methods: The CLSS modulates dose distribution at each beam energy level by varying scanning speed while keeping the beam intensity constant through a beam-intensity control system and a rapid on/off beam-switching system. In addition, we developed a beam alignment system to improve the precision of the beam position. The scanning control system is used to control the scanning pattern and set the value of the nozzle apparatus. It also collects data for monitoring and for cyclotron parameters and transmits information to the scanning power supplies and monitor amplifiers, which serve as the measurement system, and to the nozzle-control and beam-transfer systems. The specifications of the line scanning beam were determined in performance tests. Finally, a patient-specific dosimetric measurement for prostate cancer was also performed.

Results: The beam size, position, intensity, and scanning speed of our CLSS were found to be well within clinical requirements. The CLSS produced an accurate 3-dimensional dose distribution for clinical treatment planning.

Conclusion: The performance of our new CLSS was confirmed to comply with clinical requirements. We have been employing it in prostate cancer treatments since October 23, 2015.