Monte Carlo calculations of thermal neutron capture in gadolinium: A comparison of GEANT4 and MCNP with measurements

Enhancement of Radiation Effectiveness in Proton Therapy: Comparison Between Fusion and Fission Methods and Further Approaches

Proton therapy as a promising candidate in cancer treatment has attracted much attentions and many studies have been performed to investigate the new methods to enhance its radiation effectiveness. In this regard, two research groups have suggested that using boron isotopes will lead to a radiation effectiveness enhancement, using boron-11 agent to initiate the proton fusion reaction (P-BFT) and using boron-10 agent to capture the low energy secondary neutrons (NCEPT). Since, these two innovative methods have not been approved clinically, they have been recalculated in this report, discussed and compared between them and also with the traditional proton therapy to evaluate their impacts before the experimental investigations. The calculations in the present study were performed by Geant4 and MCNPX Monte Carlo Simulation Codes were utilized for obtaining more precision in our evaluations of these methods impacts. Despite small deviations in the results from the two MC tools for the NCEPT method, a good agreement was observed regarding the delivered dose rate to the tumor site at different depths while, for P-BFT related calculations, the GEANT4 was in agreement with the analytical calculations by means of the detailed cross-sections of proton-¹¹B fusion. Accordingly, both the methods generate excess dose rate to the tumor several orders of magnitude lower than the proton dose rate. Also, it was found that, the P-BFT has more significant enhancement of effectiveness, when compared to the NCEPT, a method with impact strongly depended on the tumor's depth. On the other hand, the advantage of neutron risk reduction proposed by NCEPT was found to give no considerable changes in the neutron dose absorption by healthy tissues.

Biological polymeric shielding design for an X-ray laboratory using Monte Carlo codes

Photon irradiation facilities are often shielded using lead despite its toxicity and high cost. In this study, three Monte Carlo codes, EGS5, MCNPX, and Geant4, were utilized to investigate the efficiency of a relatively new polymeric base compound (C_nH_2n), as a radiation shielding material for photons with energies below 150 keV. The proposed compound with the densities of 6 and 8 g cm^-3 were doped with the weight percentages of 8.0 and 15.0% gadolinium. The probabilities of photoelectric effect and Compton scattering were relatively equal at low photon energies, thus the shielding design was optimized using three Monte Carlo codes for the conformity of calculation results. Consequently, 8% Gd-doped polymer with thickness less than 2 cm and density of 6 g cm^-3 was adequate for X-ray room shielding to attenuate more than 95% of the 150-keV incident photons. An average dose rate reduction of 88% can be achieved to ensure safety of the radiation area.

Effect of each component of a LINAC therapy head on neutron and photon spectra

Linear accelerators (LINACs) are widely applied in radiotherapy for their versatility and flexibility. Monte Carlo simulations were made to find the neutron and photon spectra at the isocenter (IC) of a LINAC operating at 10, 15, 18, and 24 MV by the MCNPX code. A detailed model of the LINAC head, consisting of flattening filter, secondary collimator, primary collimator, and multi-leaf collimator were used in the calculations. The effect of eliminating any of these components on contamination of a neutron spectrum and a photon spectrum was assessed. Photon and neutron ambient equivalent doses were found, and comparisons were made for the various structures. Lethargy neutron spectra at the IC were compared with spectra computed with the function reported by Tosi et al., which describes well neutron spectra for the energy region beyond 1 MeV, although tending to undervalue energy spectra below 1 MeV. The findings show that the photon and neutron fluences are enhanced when eliminating a LINAC component. The neutron and photon doses increased except when removing the primary collimator.

GEANT4 calculations of neutron dose in radiation protection using a homogeneous phantom and a Chinese hybrid male phantom

The purpose of this study is to verify the feasibility of applying GEANT4 (version 10.01) in neutron dose calculations in radiation protection by comparing the calculation results with MCNP5. The depth dose distributions are investigated in a homogeneous phantom, and the fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients are calculated for different organs in the Chinese hybrid male phantom for neutrons with energy ranging from 1 × 10(-9) to 10 MeV. By comparing the simulation results between GEANT4 and MCNP5, it is shown that using the high-precision (HP) neutron physics list, GEANT4 produces the closest simulation results to MCNP5. However, differences could be observed when the neutron energy is lower than 1 × 10(-6) MeV. Activating the thermal scattering with an S matrix correction in GEANT4 with HP and MCNP5 in thermal energy range can reduce the difference between these two codes.

Reprint of Bioneutronics: Thermal scattering in organics tissues and its impact on BNCT dosimetry

Neutron transport calculation is a key factor in BNCT numerical dosimetry assessments where thermal neutron flux is intimately related to the neutron dose, specially, the therapeutic boron dose. In this work, numerical calculations in phantoms were performed to determine the importance of utilizing the appropriate thermal scattering treatment for different organic tissues. Two thermal treatments for the neutron scattering were included in the simulations: hydrogen bounded in bulk water and hydrogen bounded in a lipid like carbon chain (polyethylene). The results showed difference between both thermal treatments that can reach several percent points depending on the type of source and irradiated geometry.

First steps towards a fast-neutron therapy planning program

BACKGROUND

The Monte Carlo code GEANT4 was used to implement first steps towards a treatment planning program for fast-neutron therapy at the FRM II research reactor in Garching, Germany. Depth dose curves were calculated inside a water phantom using measured primary neutron and simulated primary photon spectra and compared with depth dose curves measured earlier. The calculations were performed with GEANT4 in two different ways, simulating a simple box geometry and splitting this box into millions of small voxels (this was done to validate the voxelisation procedure that was also used to voxelise the human body).

RESULTS

In both cases, the dose distributions were very similar to those measured in the water phantom, up to a depth of 30 cm. In order to model the situation of patients treated at the FRM II MEDAPP therapy beamline for salivary gland tumors, a human voxel phantom was implemented in GEANT4 and irradiated with the implemented MEDAPP neutron and photon spectra. The 3D dose distribution calculated inside the head of the phantom was similar to the depth dose curves in the water phantom, with some differences that are explained by differences in elementary composition. The lateral dose distribution was studied at various depths. The calculated cumulative dose volume histograms for the voxel phantom show the exposure of organs at risk surrounding the tumor.

CONCLUSIONS

In order to minimize the dose to healthy tissue, a conformal treatment is necessary. This can only be accomplished with the help of an advanced treatment planning system like the one developed here. Although all calculations were done for absorbed dose only, any biological dose weighting can be implemented easily, to take into account the increased radiobiological effectiveness of neutrons compared to photons.

The physics of solid-state neutron detector materials and geometries

Detection of neutrons, at high total efficiency, with greater resolution in kinetic energy, time and/or real-space position, is fundamental to the advance of subfields within nuclear medicine, high-energy physics, non-proliferation of special nuclear materials, astrophysics, structural biology and chemistry, magnetism and nuclear energy. Clever indirect-conversion geometries, interaction/transport calculations and modern processing methods for silicon and gallium arsenide allow for the realization of moderate- to high-efficiency neutron detectors as a result of low defect concentrations, tuned reaction product ranges, enhanced effective omnidirectional cross sections and reduced electron-hole pair recombination from more physically abrupt and electronically engineered interfaces. Conversely, semiconductors with high neutron cross sections and unique transduction mechanisms capable of achieving very high total efficiency are gaining greater recognition despite the relative immaturity of their growth, lithographic processing and electronic structure understanding. This review focuses on advances and challenges in charged-particle-based device geometries, materials and associated mechanisms for direct and indirect transduction of thermal to fast neutrons within the context of application. Calorimetry- and radioluminescence-based intermediate processes in the solid state are not included.

Octree indexing of DICOM images for voxel number reduction and improvement of Monte Carlo simulation computing efficiency

The purpose of the present study is to introduce a compression algorithm for the CT (computed tomography) data used in Monte Carlo simulations. Performing simulations on the CT data implies large computational costs as well as large memory requirements since the number of voxels in such data reaches typically into hundreds of millions voxels. CT data, however, contain homogeneous regions which could be regrouped to form larger voxels without affecting the simulation's accuracy. Based on this property we propose a compression algorithm based on octrees: in homogeneous regions the algorithm replaces groups of voxels with a smaller number of larger voxels. This reduces the number of voxels while keeping the critical high-density gradient area. Results obtained using the present algorithm on both phantom and clinical data show that compression rates up to 75% are possible without losing the dosimetric accuracy of the simulation.