43 results about "Hadron" patented technology

The invention is related to the field of charged Hadron Therapy, i.e. radiation therapy using strongly interacting particles. More particularly, the invention relates to a detector and method for measuring the beam range of a charged hadron beam in a target object as well as the particle dose distribution in the target object.

The invention is related to an apparatus and method for charged hadron therapy verification by detecting and / or quantifying prompt gammas produced when irradiating a target (6) with a charged hadron beam. The apparatus comprises a collimator (1) provided with a slit-shaped portion (2) configured to be arranged perpendicularly to the beam line and facing the target, a detection means (3,4) suitable for detecting said prompt gammas and a calculation and representation means. In the apparatus and method of the invention, the slit is configured to allow the passage of prompt gammas emitted from a range of depths in said target (6), said depths being measured in the direction of the charged hadron beam. Furthermore, said detection means is configured to detect prompt gammas emitted from each location within said range, and said calculation and representation means is configured to derive from a detected prompt gamma a value representative of the dose at the location from where said prompt gamma is emitted, and to represent a dose-related distribution for a plurality of locations within said range.

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for mirroring file data. Generally, high availability and disaster recovery (“HADRON”) is achieved within a database management system by detecting which parts of a file have changed and sending the changed parts to secondaries. Adjacent or partially overlapping parts of a file can coalesce to form larger chunks of changed data. Coalescing reduces the overall number of chunks that are tracked.

The present invention relates to a method for obtaining a shielding element for minimizing the penumbra of a beam of hadrons outside a target area, the hadron beam being guided in a longitudinal direction by an irradiation unit, and the beam having a width (σ). The method includes:(i) defining a closed or open contour of said target area;(ii) providing a block having a longitudinal thickness capable of blocking the passage of said beam and having a lateral surface perpendicular to said longitudinal thickness;(iii) forming an aperture of a shape similar to said contour and crossing said longitudinal thickness of said block for letting through said beam, said aperture forming a longitudinal internal surface; and(iv) trimming said block so as to form a longitudinal external surface around said longitudinal internals surface, said longitudinal internal and longitudinal external surfaces delimiting a side wall.

The present invention relates to a device for dosimetry monitoring of a hadron beam, comprising n successive ionization chambers i obtained by a series or stack of n+1 parallel detector plates separated from each other by a gas filled gap, each detector plates having a collecting part comprising a collecting side insulated from a bias voltage part comprising a bias voltage side and arranged in a such way that the said collecting side is facing the said bias voltage side of a subsequent detector plate or inversely, each detector plate comprising m layers Lk of materials, the resulting assembly of these detector plates forming a plurality of ionization chamber cells, characterised in that: the thicknesses lk and the choice of the materials of each layer Lk constituting each detector plate as well as the gap of an ionization chamber cell i have been selected in order to satisfy the equation (I) for each ionization chamber i, where lgi is the gas filled gap distance between two detector plates; Ik is the thickness of the corresponding layer Lk of a detector plate and; WETk is the water equivalent thickness (WET) o f the corresponding layer Lk of a detector plate.

The invention provides a method for accelerating protons and carbon ions up to 450 MeV / u in a very compact linac, the method comprising subjecting the particles to a radio frequency quadrupole field to accelerate the particles to at least 3 MeV / u, a drift tube linac (DTL) to an energy of 20 MeV / u, followed by a coupled DTL to 45 MeV / u and finally a high-gradient section made of CCL-type standing wave cavities or negative harmonic traveling wave cavities operating at S-band frequencies and capable of delivering voltage gradients of 40 to 60 MV / m. Focusing the accelerated particles while accelerated to higher energy is provided by appropriately placed constant field permanent magnets and electromagnetic quadrupoles. The compactness and power efficiency of the linac is enabled by using high-gradient structure in the S-band frequencies for lower energy particles than ever before. The low-intensity required for hadron therapy allows the use of small-aperture S-band structures and the operation at very high gradient compared to high-intensity machines for research. Operating with very short sub-microsecond pulses at repetition rates up to 400 Hz allows the fast and flexible beam energy and intensity tuning not provided by existing hadron therapy machines. The designed linac is capable of accelerating ions as heavy as neon to the full 450 MeV / u energy, therefore allowing fast beam switching if different ion sources are installed in the front-end of the linac.

Instrumentation and methodologies are provided that enable the direct measurement of free radicals generated in patients as a result of radiation therapy through the use of proton beams and other forms of ionizing radiation. As a result, in accordance with at least one disclosed embodiment, the instrumentation and methodologies may be used in conjunction with radiation therapy to detect, monitor and / or control generation of free radicals in cancerous tissue during such radiation therapy.

Treatment planning methods are provided that determine the variability of relative biological effectiveness (RBE) along a beam line and calculate, among other things, what intensity of hadron beam such as a proton or a carbon ion beam should be applied to achieve a desired biological dose at treatment site of a patient afflicted with a medical condition. Typically, three or four RBE values at three or four corresponding spacially-dispersed intervals along the beam line are calculated. In one embodiment, two RBE values for the spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) region of the treatment site; one for the proximal section and one for the declining distal section is calculated. A third and different RBE value may be determined for the distal edge region of the SOBP. A fourth value may also be calculated for a pre-SOBP region.

The present invention is related to an apparatus and method for hadron beam verification. The apparatus allows to verify a number of different characteristics in a brief time span. The apparatus comprises at least one main degrader element and associated therewith a multiple thickness degrader element. The latter may comprise a number of patches of beam degrading material, the patches having constant but mutually different thicknesses. Alternatively, it may be a wedge-shaped element. By aiming a pencil beam at the various thicknesses, data points can be obtained which allow to make an estimation of the beam range. In addition to this, the apparatus comprises a zone where no degrader material is present, and where a measurement of the spot size can be obtained, without moving or replacing the apparatus.