Dose profile monitoring with carbon ions by means of prompt-gamma measurements

A key point in the quality control of ion therapy is real-time monitoring and imaging of the dose delivered to the patient. Among the possible signals that can be used to make such a monitoring, prompt gamma-rays issued from nuclear fragmentation are possible candidates, provided the correlation between the emission profile and the primary beam range can be established. By means of simultaneous energy and time-of-flight discrimination, we could measure the longitudinal profile of the prompt gamma-rays emitted by 73 MeV/u carbon ions stopping inside a PMMA target. This technique allowed us to minimize the shielding against neutrons and scattered gamma rays, and to find a good correlation between the prompt-gamma profile and the ion range. This profile was studied as a function of the observation angle. By extrapolating our results to higher energies and realistic detection efficiencies, we showed that prompt gamma-ray measurements make it feasible to control in real time the longitudinal dose during ion therapy treatments.