Validation of Light-Ion Quantum Molecular Dynamics (LIQMD) model for hadron therapy

Yoshi-Hide Sato; Dousatsu Sakata; David Bolst; Edward C Simpson; Andrew Chacon; Mitra Safavi-Naeini; Susanna Guatelli; Akihiro Haga

doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2024.104850

Validation of Light-Ion Quantum Molecular Dynamics (LIQMD) model for hadron therapy

Phys Med. 2024 Nov 27:128:104850. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2024.104850. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yoshi-Hide Sato¹, Dousatsu Sakata², David Bolst³, Edward C Simpson⁴, Andrew Chacon⁵, Mitra Safavi-Naeini⁶, Susanna Guatelli³, Akihiro Haga⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan.
² Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan; Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; School of Physics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: dosatsu.sakata@cern.ch.
³ Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia.
⁴ Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁵ Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), NSW, Australia.
⁶ Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia; Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), NSW, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁷ Department of Biological Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan. Electronic address: haga@tokushima-u.ac.jp.

PMID: 39608277
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2024.104850

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to validate the Light-Ion Quantum Molecular Dynamics (LIQMD) model, an advanced version of the QMD model for more accurate simulations in hadron therapy, incorporated into Geant4 (release 11.2).

Methods: Two sets of experiments are employed. The first includes positron-emitter distributions along the beam path for 350 MeV/u ¹²C ions incident on a PMMA target, obtained from in-vivo Positron Emission Tomography (PET) experiments at QST (Chiba, Japan). The second comprises cross-sections for 95 MeV/u ¹²C ions incident on thin targets (H, C, O, Al, and Ti), obtained from experiments at GANIL (Caen, France). The LIQMD model's performance is compared with the experimental data and the default QMD model results.

Results: The LIQMD model can predict the profile shape of positron-emitting radionuclide yields with better accuracy than the default QMD model, although some discrepancies remains. The consistency observed in the production of positron-emitting radionuclides aligns with the thin target cross-section analysis. The LIQMD model significantly improves the differential and double-differential cross-sections of fragments produced in thin targets, especially in the forward direction. The overestimation of ¹⁰C production in the in-vivo PET benchmark is consistent with the 95 MeV/u ¹²C cross-section test. Overall, the LIQMD model demonstrates better agreement with experimental measurements for nearly all fragment species compared to the QMD model.

Conclusions: The LIQMD model offers an improved description of the fragmentation process in hadron therapy. Future work should involve further validation against additional experimental measurements to confirm these findings.

Keywords: Cross-section; Fragmentation; Geant4; In-vivo Positron Emission Tomography; Quantum Molecular Dynamics.