Erlangen 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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ST: Fachverband Strahlen- und Medizinphysik

ST 5: Focus Session: Range Verification in Particle Therapy

ST 5.3: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 19. März 2026, 12:00–12:30, KH 01.013

Radioactive ion beams for real-time PET-guided adaptive particle therapy — •Daria Boscolo for the BARB Collaboration — GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany

Heavy ion particle therapy offers superior dose conformity compared to conventional radiotherapy, but its clinical potential is limited by high sensitivity to range uncertainties at the distal edge of the Bragg peak. To ensure tumor coverage, large safety margins are often applied, partially negating the benefits of particle therapy. Online range verification methods are therefore essential, particularly for adaptive treatment strategies. Positron emission tomography (PET) is among the most established techniques for in-beam range verification; however, in conventional 12C-ion therapy its accuracy is constrained by low signal-to-noise ratios, spatial mismatches between activity and dose peaks, and long acquisition times. The direct use of β*-emitting radioactive ion beams for both treatment and imaging offers a promising solution to these limitations. Within the BARB project, the feasibility of 11C-ion beams combined with real-time in-beam PET imaging has been extensively investigated. We report the first demonstration of real-time adaptive particle therapy using radioactive ion beams in a living mouse model, showing that dynamic beam repositioning produces spatially resolved PET signals correlated with distinct treatment outcomes. These results provide compelling evidence that 11C-beams-based imaging can enable precise range verification, adaptive treatment delivery, and improved tumor control with reduced toxicity.

Keywords: Radioactive ion beams; in-beam PET; range verification; online imaging; particle therapy