A quantitative assessment of Geant4 for predicting the yield and distribution of positron-emitting fragments in ion beam therapy
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Date
2024-06-21
Journal Title
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Publisher
IOP Publishing
Abstract
Objective. To compare the accuracy with which different hadronic inelastic physics models across ten Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit versions can predict positron-emitting fragments produced along the beam path during carbon and oxygen ion therapy. Approach. Phantoms of polyethylene, gelatin, or poly(methyl methacrylate) were irradiated with monoenergetic carbon and oxygen ion beams. Post-irradiation, 4D PET images were acquired and parent 11C, 10C and 15O radionuclides contributions in each voxel were determined from the extracted time activity curves. Next, the experimental configurations were simulated in Geant4 Monte Carlo versions 10.0 to 11.1, with three different fragmentation models—binary ion cascade (BIC), quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) and the Liege intranuclear cascade (INCL++) - 30 model-version combinations. Total positron annihilation and parent isotope production yields predicted by each simulation were compared between simulations and experiments using normalised mean squared error and Pearson cross-correlation coefficient. Finally, we compared the depth of the maximum positron annihilation yield and the distal point at which the positron yield decreases to 50% of peak between each model and the experimental results. Main results. Performance varied considerably across versions and models, with no one version/model combination providing the best prediction of all positron-emitting fragments in all evaluated target materials and irradiation conditions. BIC in Geant4 10.2 provided the best overall agreement with experimental results in the largest number of test cases. QMD consistently provided the best estimates of both the depth of peak positron yield (10.4 and 10.6) and the distal 50%-of-peak point (10.2), while BIC also performed well and INCL generally performed the worst across most Geant4 versions. Significance. The best predictions of the spatial distribution of positron annihilations and positron-emitting fragment production along the beam path during carbon and oxygen ion therapy was obtained using Geant4 10.2.p03 with BIC or QMD. These version/model combinations are recommended for future heavy ion therapy research. © 2024 The Author(s). Published on behalf of Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine by IOP Publishing Ltd - Open Access - Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Description
Keywords
Positrons, Ion beams, Physics, Monte Carlo Method, Simulation, Carbon, Oxygen, Polyethylenes, Isotopes, Neoplasms, Dose rates, Quality assurance, Positron computed tomography
Citation
Chacon, A., Rutherford, H., Hamato, A., Nitta, M., Nishikido, F., Iwao, Y., Tashima, H., Yoshida, E., Akamatsu, G., Takyu, S., Kang, H. G., Franklin, D. R., Parodi, K., Yamaya, T., Rosenfeld, A., Guatelli, S., & Safavi-Naeini, M. (2024). A quantitative assessment of Geant4 for predicting the yield and distribution of positron-emitting fragments in ion beam therapy. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 69(12), 125015. doi:10.1088/1361-6560/ad4f48