Joseph Perl

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Scientific Computing Workshop

20 June 2011

Work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC02-76SF00515 and by the U.S National Institutes of Health under contract number 1R01CA140735-01

Medical Physics Applications of theGeant4 Simulation Toolkit

220 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

The Therapeutic Ratio

Podgorsak et al, Radiation Oncology Physics Handbook, IAEA 2005

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5.0 10.00.0

http://www.nirs.go.jp/tiryo/himac/himac2.htm

50

100Bragg peak

proton

carbon

Ｘ -ray

γ-ray

neutron

Rel

ativ

e D

ose

(%

)

Depth - Human Body (cm) 　　　 15

The Bragg Peak

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Distal Edge and Penumbra

Bussiere and Adams, 2003

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Towards More Conformal Treatment

Bussiere and Adams, 2003

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Pediatrics

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E. Poon et al - McGill University

Monte Carlo Simulation of thePassage of Particles through Matter

820 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Why do Some Medical Physicists Choose

Geant4?

There are many successful Monte Carlo codes in Medical Physics:

• EGSnrc (Electron Gamma Shower)– also came from HEP (the EGS project at SLAC, Ralph Nelson and

Richard Ford, 1978)

• XVMC (Voxel Monte Carlo)

• VMC++

• MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code)

• PENELOPE

• FLUKA

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920 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Geant4 is:• An All Particle code

• Able to handle Complex Geometry

• Able to handle Motion

• Able to handle Fields

• With a Modern Programming Language

• Open and Free

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Monte Carlo Modeling and Simulation of a Passive Treatment Proton Beam Delivery System using a Modulation Wheel Jungwook Shin, Dongwook Kim, Young Kyung Lim, Sunghwan Ahn, Dongho Shin, Myong geun Yoon, Sung-Yong Park and Se Byeong Lee (Proton Therapy Center, National Cancer Center)Jungwon Kwak (Asan Medical Center) Dongchul Son (School of Physics and Energy Sciences, Kyungpook National University)

Treatment Head Simulation

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

10 Gy

20 Gy 30 Gy

35 Gy

40 Gy

42 Gy

44 Gy

46 Gy

48 Gy

4 Gy

2 Gy 3 Gy

1 Gy

MC:Dose-to-water

MC:Dose-to-tissue

Analytical

Differences

Harald Paganetti, Harvard / MGH

Patient Simulation

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QuickTime™ and aGIF decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Lateral Motion of Lung Tumor4D

Pat

ient

12

13

QuickTime™ and aGIF decompressor

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© Eike Rietzel4D

Pat

ient

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Breathing Patient

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Tool for Particle Simulation

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To use Monte Carlo transport for particle therapy today, one must be both an expert in Monte Carloand an expert in medical physics.With TOPAS, it will be sufficient to be anexpert in medical physics.

SLAC - Joseph PerlUCSF - Bruce Faddegon, Jungwook ShinMGH - Harald Paganetti, Jan Schümann

Work supported by the U.S National Institutes of Health under contract number 1R01CA140735-01

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

PTCOG50 Philadelphia, AAPM2011 Vancouver

Tool for Particle Simulation

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Geant4 North American Medical Users Organization - G4NAMU

Launched in 2005 to provide a meeting place for the rapidly growingLaunched in 2005 to provide a meeting place for the rapidly growingGeant4 medical user community of North AmericaGeant4 medical user community of North America

•Bring this community together Bring this community together to share issues and advice, to to share issues and advice, to develop regional collaboration develop regional collaboration and to communicate as a group and to communicate as a group to the Geant4 developers.to the Geant4 developers.

•Current membership includes Current membership includes 157 members from 79 157 members from 79 institutions throughoutinstitutions throughoutNorth America (a few beyond)North America (a few beyond)

•http://geant4.slac.stanford.edu/g4namu/

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

Source: Irene Buvat, INSERM/CHU

Medical Imaging• Rapid advances in technology

– Higher resolution

– Higher speed

– Lower dose

– Better ability to differentiate tissue types• Dual Energy CT, etc.

– On board imaging for setup, motion tracking, dose validation

• x-ray

• Linac/MRI

• Proton Computed Tomography

• Gamma Camera

• etc.

• Monte Carlo is used extensively to evaluate new designs and to interpret results

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20 June 2011 Geant4 in Medical Physics J. Perl

• X-ray

• Low Dose Rate (LDR) Brachytherapy

• High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy

• Nuclear Medicine

– and combinations such as external beam with gold nanoparticle

• Heavy Ion Therapy

– Carbon ions

Other Radiation Modalities

1959

Carrier et al, IJROBP (68), 2007 pp.1190-1198

Prostate brachytherapyJean-François Carrier, CHUM

QuickTime™ and aGIF decompressor

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Makoto Asai:• Geant4 collaboration spokesperson• Coordinator of Geant4 run, event and detector working groups• Expert in Geant4 kernel, tracking and geometryMike Kelsey:• Expert in Geant4 hadronic interactions and variance reduction

techniquesTatsumi Koi:• Expert in Geant4 hadronic interactions, neutrons and ions• Expert in spacecraft radiation effectsJoseph Perl:• Coordinator of Geant4 visualization working group• Coordinator of Geant4 North American Medical Users OrganizationDennis Wright:• Coordinator of Geant4 hadronics working group

SLAC Geant4 Group