Comparative study of alternative Geant4 hadronic ion inelastic physics models for prediction of positron-emitting radionuclide production in carbon and oxygen ion therapy.

Comparative study of alternative Geant4 hadronic ion inelastic physics models for prediction of positron-emitting radionuclide production in carbon and oxygen ion therapy.
Phys Med Biol. 2019 Jun 05;:
Authors: Chacon A, Guatelli S, Rutherford H, Bolst D, Mohammadi A, Ahmed AM, Nitta M, Nishikido F, Iwao Y, Tashima H, Yoshida E, Akamatsu G, Takyu S, Kitagawa A, Hofmann T, Pinto M, Franklin DR, Parodi K, Yamaya T, Rozenfeld AB, Safavi-Naeini M
Abstract
The distribution of fragmentation products predicted by Monte Carlo simulations of heavy ion therapy depend on the hadronic physics model chosen in the simulation. This work aims to evaluate three alternative hadronic inelastic fragmentation physics options available in the Geant4 Monte Carlo radiation physics simulation framework to determine which model most accurately predicts the production of positron-emitting fragmentation products observable using in-beam PET imaging. Fragment distributions obtained with the BIC, QMD, and INCL++ physics models in Geant4 version 10.2.p03 are compared to experimental data obtained at the HIMAC heavy-ion treatment facility at NIRS in Chiba, Japan. For both simulations and experiments, monoenergetic beams are applied to three different block phantoms composed of gelatin, poly(methyl methacrylate) and polyethylene. The yields of the positron-emitting nuclei <sup>11</sup>C, <sup>10&am...

Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - June 4, 2019 Category: Physics Authors: Chacon A, Guatelli S, Rutherford H, Bolst D, Mohammadi A, Ahmed AM, Nitta M, Nishikido F, Iwao Y, Tashima H, Yoshida E, Akamatsu G, Takyu S, Kitagawa A, Hofmann T, Pinto M, Franklin DR, Parodi K, Yamaya T, Rozenfeld AB, Safavi-Naeini M Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research