Evaluation of the effect of different concentrations of boron on proton therapy of the liver using GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit

Experimental results have shown that dadding boron to tumor tissue during proton therapy increases the mortality of cancer cells. This work has investigated how to form a spread-out Bragg peak in the proton therapy of a liver-located tumor by simulating the MIRD phantom and designing a range modulator. The simulations were carried out using a GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit. Also, the absorbed dose of the different organs near the liver was determined via simulations. To study the effect of boron on liver proton therapy, a tumor impregnated with different percentages of boron was simulated and the effect of energy released in the tumor as a result of alpha particles, protons and their combinations was investigated. The absorbed dose in the tumor at different proton energies and with varying percentages of boron was investigated. It was found that the absorbed dose in the tumor increases by adding boron, however; it decreases by increasing the energy from a certain limit (~80 MeV) of more than 60% boron.