Tumour control is performed in particle therapy using particles and ions, whose high irradiation precision enhances the effectiveness of the treatment, while sparing the healthy tissue surrounding the target volume.
Dose range monitoring devices using photons and charged particles produced by the beam interacting with the patient's body have already been proposed, but no attempt has been made yet to exploit the detection of the abundant neutron component.
Since neutrons can release a significant dose far away from the tumour region, precise measurements of their flux, production energy and angle distributions are eagerly sought in order to improve the treatment planning system (TPS) software. It will thus be possible to predict not only the normal tissue toxicity in the target region, but also the risk of late complications in the whole body.
The aforementioned issues underline the importance of an experimental effort devoted to the precise characterisation of neutron production, aimed at the measurement of their abundance, emission point and production energy.
The technical challenges posed by a neutron detector aimed at high detection efficiency and good backtracking precision are addressed within the MONDO (monitor for neutron dose in hadrontherapy) project, whose main goal is to develop a tracking detector that can target fast and ultrafast neutrons.A full reconstruction of two consecutive elastic scattering interactions undergone by the neutrons inside the detector material will be used to measure their energy and direction.
The MONDO tracker uses, as active material, squared scintillating fibres readout by dedicated CMOS-based digital SPAD array sensors, developed in collaboration with FBK. The technology adopted for the readout, SBAM (SPAD-Based Acquisition readout for MONDO experiment), will be a novel sensor matched to the MONDO needs of single photon detection capability, high spatial resolution and compactness.
The project MONDO has been supported by INFN Gruppo V with a Young Researchers Grant (2015-2016) and is right now a Centro Fermi* Project, supported by the SIR (Scientific Independence of young Researchers) MIUR Founding (2015-2018).
Who:
M. Marafini, R. Mirabelli, G. Battistoni, E. Gioscio, V. Patera, D. Pinci, A. Sarti, A. Sciubba, G. Traini
Collaboration:
- Fondazione Bruno Kessler (www.fbk.eu)
MONDO collaboration
2020
- Toppi M, et al. The MONDO Tracker: Characterisation and Study of Secondary Ultrafast Neutrons Production in Carbon Ion Radiotherapy
(2020) Frontiers in Physics, 8 - E. Gioscio et al, Development of a novel neutron tracker for the characterisation of secondary neutrons emitted in Particle Therapy, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Volume 958,2020.
2019
- Manuzzato E et al A 16 × 8 Digital-SiPM Array with Distributed Trigger Generator for Low SNR Particle Tracking
(2019) ESSCIRC 2019 - IEEE 45th European Solid State Circuits Conference - Manuzzato E et al A 16×8 digital-sipm array with distributed trigger generator for low snr particle tracking
(2019) IEEE Solid-State Circuits Letters, 2 - M. Fischetti et al, Characterisation of the secondary-neutron production in particle therapy treatments with the MONDO tracking detector IL NUOVO CIMENTO 41 C (2018) 206
2018
- V. Giacometti et al, Characterisation of the MONDO detector response to neutrons by means of a FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation Radiation Measurements Volume 119, December 2018, Pages 144-149
- R. Mirabelli et al, The MONDO Detector Prototype Development and Test: Steps Toward an SPAD-CMOS-Based Integrated Readout (SBAM Sensor) (2018) IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 65 (2), pp. 744-751.
- R. Mirabelli et al, MONDO: A tracker for the characterization of secondary fast and ultrafast neutrons emitted in particle therapy 2018 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 956 012013
- G. Traini et al, Preliminary test of the MONDO project secondary fast and ultrafast neutrons tracker response using protons and MIP particles 2018 JINST 13 C04014
- Marafini, M., et al. Study of the Performance of an Optically Readout Triple-GEM (2018) IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 65 (1)
2017
- R. Mirabelli, MONDO: A neutron tracker for particle therapy secondary emission fluxes measurements IL NUOVO CIMENTO 40 C (2017) 99
- M. Marafini et al, MONDO: a neutron tracker for particle therapy secondary emission characterisation 2017 Phys. Med. Biol. 62 3299
2016
- S.M. Valle et al, The MONDO project: A secondary neutron tracker detector for particle therapy Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 845 (2017) 556–559
- M. Marafini et al, ORANGE: a high sensitivity particle tracker based on optically read out GEM Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 845 (2017) 285–288
2015
- M. Marafini et al, MONDO: A neutron tracker for particle therapy secondary emission fluxes measurements Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 824 (2016) 210–211
- M. Marafini et al, Optical readout of a triple-GEM detector by means of a CMOS sensor Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 824 (2016) 562–564
- M. Marafini et al, High granularity tracker based on a Triple-GEM optically read by a CMOS-based camera 2015 JINST 10 P12010