HADRON THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF LIVER CANCER BY USING SIMULATION OF THE MONTE CARLO METHOD

 The most commonly used method for external radiation therapy is the use of photons, protons, neutrons, and heavy ions. Hadron therapy is used to eliminate cancerous tissues by using ionizing particles which will bring less damage to healthy tissues.The aim of this study was to evaluate the dose, energy, and flux in a cancerous tumor in the liver and also secondary particles produced by hadrons, which is using the Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation.

In this analytical and applied study by using the Geant4 Monte Carlo Codes, the human body phantom and the tumor that was inserted inside the liver tissue, were simulated. In the method of hadron therapy with different energies, dose deposit, energy, and flux, for carbon and boron were obtained and the approximate area of the target tissue was determined by extrapolation of data.

As observed, as the energy of the beam increases, the peaks become wider and their maximum value (maximum absorbed dose) decreases, because the particle path, depends only on its primary energy. In this study, according to the simulation, the best energy range to start the interaction and Bragg's peak in the tumor area, for boron, is 1805 to 2075 MeV, and for carbon is 2415 to 3015 MeV.

Hadron therapy is more accurate than conventional radiotherapy because of less damage to healthy cells around the tumor. As a result, in the calculated useful energy, the highest dose or destruction caused by radiation is only given to the tumor tissue. The results obtained from the doses, energy, and flux in the simulated liver tissue tumor showed that the hadrons after a long-distance leave the highest dose and energy in the tumor area.