Proposing a clinical model for RBE based on proton track-end counts

In proton therapy, the clinical application of linear energy transfer (LET) optimisation remains contentious, in part due to challenges associated with the definition and calculation of LET and its exact relationship with RBE due to large variation in experimental in vitro data. This has raised interest in other metrics with favourable properties for biological optimisation, such as the number of proton track-ends in a voxel. In this work, we propose a novel model for clinical calculations of RBE, based on proton track-end counts.

Source: International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics - January 12, 2023 Category: Radiology Authors: Nicholas T. Henthorn, Lydia L. Gardner, Adam H. Aitkenhead, Benjamin C. Rowland, Jungwook Shin, Edward A.K. Smith, Michael J. Merchant, Ranald I. Mackay, Karen J. Kirkby, Pankaj Chaudhary, Kevin M. Prise, Stephen J. McMahon, Tracy S.A. Underwood Source Type: research