Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation of absorbed dose and radiolysis yields enhancement from a gold nanoparticle under MeV proton irradiation

H.N. Tran , M. Karamitros , V.N. Ivanchenko , S. Guatelli , S. Mckinnon , K. Murakami (1) , T. Sasaki (1) , S. Okada (1) , Marie-Claude Bordage (2) , Z. Francis (3) , Z. El Bitar (4) , M.A. Bernal , J.I. Shin , S. Lee , Ph. Barberet , T.T. Tran , J.M.C. Brown , T.V. Nhan Hao , S. Incerti (5)

1 High energy accelerator research organization - KEK
2 CRCT - Centre de Recherches en Cancérologie de Toulouse
3 Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences
4 IPHC - Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien
5 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan

Gold nanoparticles have been reported as a possible radio-sensitizer agent in radiation therapy due to their ability to increase energy deposition and subsequent direct damage to cells and DNA within their local vicinity. Moreover, this increase in energy deposition also results in an increase of the radiochemical yields. In this work we present, for the first time, an in silico investigation, based on the general purpose Monte Carlo simulation toolkit Geant4, into energy deposition and radical species production around a spherical gold nanoparticle 50 nm in diameter via proton irradiation. Simulations were preformed for incident proton energies ranging from 2 to 170 MeV, which are of interest for clinical proton therapy.

Mots clés: Geant4-DNA; Nanoparticle; Radiolysis; Proton beam; Radiation therapy

Domaines: Physique [physics]

H.N. Tran, M. Karamitros, V.N. Ivanchenko, S. Guatelli, S. Mckinnon, et al.. Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation of absorbed dose and radiolysis yields enhancement from a gold nanoparticle under MeV proton irradiation. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2016, 373, pp.126 - 139. ⟨10.1016/j.nimb.2016.01.017⟩. ⟨hal-01401966⟩