IPAC'23 - 14th International Particle Accelerator Conference

VHEE and ultra high dose rate radiotherapy studies in the CLEAR user facility

THPM078

11 May 2023, 16:30

2h

Sala Mosaici 2

Poster Presentation MC8.U01: Medical Applications Thursday Poster Session

Speakers

Alexander Malyzhenkov (European Organization for Nuclear Research) Pierre Korysko (Oxford University)

Description

Given the current availability of high-gradient accelerator technology for cost effective and compact electron LINACs in the 100-200 MeV energy range, using Very High Energy Electron (VHEE) radiotherapy (RT) for cancer treatment recently gained a lot of interest. The Ultra High Dose Rate (UHDR) or FLASH dose regime, in which cancerous cells are damaged while healthy tissues are largely spared is one of the main topics studied. VHEE beams are especially adapted for FLASH RT, given their penetration depth and the high beam current, needed to treat large deep-seated tumors. In the CERN Linear Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) facility, numerous unique experiments have been initiated on VHEE and FLASH RT issues, in collaboration with several multidisciplinary user groups, including dosimetric, chemical and biological studies. The dedicated systems, techniques and methods used for VHEE/UHDR RT studies, locally developed by members of the CLEAR operation team, are presented in this paper together with a summary of the main results obtained in collaboration with the user groups.