Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ebeam4therapy (Very High Energy Electrons Beam for Radiotherapy)
Période du rapport: 2022-08-01 au 2023-07-31
Despite advanced treatment planning and delivery, conventional oncologic radiotherapy (RT) is limited by acute toxicity and long-term side effects caused by radiation delivery to healthy tissues, which often restricts the ability to deliver a sufficient dose of radiation to the tumours. The problem is exacerbated when treating cancers that are either deep down inside the human body, or in delicate areas where toxicity to nearby organs could cause serious side effects, especially when treating obese patients, whose numbers are increasing globally. Thus, an accessible and cost-effective alternative to current RT modalities is urgently needed. In ERC-PoC project Vherapy we made a breakthrough in demonstrating the viability of delivering high-quality particle beams with compact laser plasma accelerators for very high energy electron radiotherapy (VHEE-RT). We demonstrated that such a VHEE beam can be produced with a single laser beam using a new injection scheme, making the acceleration machinery small, simple and cost effective, thereby giving this device of the future substantial competitive advantage. The objectives of the eBeam4Therapy project are to optimize VHEE beam performances for radiotherapy applications further, to characterise the 3D dose deposition, to improve and scale-down each component of the machine, and finally to build an electron source prototype that demonstrates the technical feasibility in an economically competitive setting. The commercial feasibility is validated with real market players and the project expands the existing network of collaborators and sources additional investment to accomplish the next steps in technological & commercial development to speed up market entry, together with industrial partners. eBeam4Therapy aims to revolutionise cancer therapy by providing better clinical outcomes and radically improving the quality of life of cancer patients at a lower financial burden to payers and economies, thus addressing a real and immediate global societal challenge.
As of September of 2023, these are the tasks that have been tackled by the ebeam4therapy team at the Weizmann Institute of Science :
- Full and final design of the new laboratory space that is dedicated to this project. The design phase started in August of 2022 when our team collaborated with the Weizmann construction division in order to plan the renovations of the building in which the laboratory will seat. In parallel, we fully designed the laboratory in three dimensions using a CAD software, we have ordered all of the relevant equipment and we are in the process of programming the laboratory control software. The laboratory building is now under construction with a planned finish date in January of 2024.
- Extensive numerical simulations aimed at optimizing the laser-plasma acceleration process in our system have been implemented and are used routinely by our team. This has allowed us to plan the laboratory design before actual experiments take place and we are now using to use this simulation together with a genetic algorithm in order to further optimize the electron beam generation process.
- Design of the electron transport line. We have used Monte-Carlo type of simulations in GEANT4 in order to design the series of magnets that will allow us to transport the elctrons we generate from the source to the phantom/patient.
- Design of the phantom that we will use to perform accurate 3D dosimetry. We came up with a novel phantom design based on a plastic scintillator which will enable us to reconstruct the 3D dose deposition profile inside of water-equivalent plastics. We described this work and the calibration methods associated in D1.1
- Full and final design of the new laboratory space that is dedicated to this project. The design phase started in August of 2022 when our team collaborated with the Weizmann construction division in order to plan the renovations of the building in which the laboratory will seat. In parallel, we fully designed the laboratory in three dimensions using a CAD software, we have ordered all of the relevant equipment and we are in the process of programming the laboratory control software. The laboratory building is now under construction with a planned finish date in January of 2024.
- Extensive numerical simulations aimed at optimizing the laser-plasma acceleration process in our system have been implemented and are used routinely by our team. This has allowed us to plan the laboratory design before actual experiments take place and we are now using to use this simulation together with a genetic algorithm in order to further optimize the electron beam generation process.
- Design of the electron transport line. We have used Monte-Carlo type of simulations in GEANT4 in order to design the series of magnets that will allow us to transport the elctrons we generate from the source to the phantom/patient.
- Design of the phantom that we will use to perform accurate 3D dosimetry. We came up with a novel phantom design based on a plastic scintillator which will enable us to reconstruct the 3D dose deposition profile inside of water-equivalent plastics. We described this work and the calibration methods associated in D1.1