A soft-modulating and double-scattering beam delivery system for proton therapy

The proton therapy is a new developing method in the radiation oncology. The superior dose localization capabilities of proton beams suggest the possibility of depositing a higher dose into the cancer while reducing the unwanted radiation damage in surrounding normal tissues. The merit can be realized with the aid of the beam delivery system, whose functions are energy adjustment, energy modulation, beam spreading and collimation. In this paper a new soft-modulating and double-scattering beam delivery system is proposed. It uses a program-controlled modulator to change proton energy and thereby the proton range in the body so that the Bragg peak is spread out. Moreover, a larger treatment field can be obtained with two scatterers. The delivery system has high reliability and flexibility, and is especially good for conformal therapy.