Creation, evolution, and future challenges of ion beam therapy from a medical physicist's viewpoint (Part 2). Chapter...

When an ion beam penetrates deeply into the body, its kinetic energy decreases, and its biological effect increases due to the change of the beam quality. To give a uniform biological effect to the target, it is necessary to reduce the absorbed dose with the depth. A bio-physical model estimating the relationship between ion beam quality and biological effect is necessary to determine the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the ion beam that changes with depth. For this reason, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) and GSI have each developed their own model at the starting of the ion beam therapy. Also, NIRS developed a new model at the starting of the scanning irradiation. Although the Local Effect Model (LEM) at the GSI and the modified Microdosimetric Kinetic Model (MKM) at the NIRS, the both are currently used, can similarly predict radiation quality-induced changes in surviving fraction of cultured cell, the clinical RBE-weighted doses for the same absorbed dose are different. This is because the LEM uses X-rays as a reference for clinical RBE, whereas the modified MKM uses carbon ion beam as a reference and multiplies it by a clinical factor of 2.41. Therefore, both are converted through the absorbed dose. In PART 2, I will describe the development of such a bio-physical model, as well as the birth and evolution of a treatment planning system and image guided radiotherapy.