Comparative study of depth-dose distributions for beams of light and heavy nuclei in tissue-like media

摘要

We study the energy deposition by beams of light and heavy nuclei in tissue-like media for their possible application in charged-par-ticle cancer therapy. The depth-dose distributions for protons, ~3He, ~(12)C, ~(20)Ne and ~(58)Ni nuclei are calculated within a Monte Carlo model based on the GEANT4 toolkit. These distributions are compared with each other and with available experimental data. It is demonstrated that nuclear fragmentation reactions essentially reduce the peak-to-plateau ratio of the dose profiles for deeply penetrating energetic ions heavier than ~3He. On the other hand, the shapes of depth-dose profiles for all projectiles up to ~(58)Ni were found similar at low penetration depths.