Particle Therapy Gantry with an Energy Degrader and an Achromatic Final Bending System

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This invention describes an advanced movable gantry system for particle therapy, particularly useful in precision cancer treatment. The gantry includes a series of magnets and an integrated energy degrader that allows quick and precise modulation of beam energy. Its novel achromatic final bending section has a much larger momentum acceptance than previous systems, enabling very rapid changes in beam energy for efficient pencil-beam scanning without needing to re-adjust the main magnet fields.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Precision proton or ion beam therapy for cancer treatment in hospitals or specialized clinics
• Fast and accurate targeting of tumors from multiple directions with minimal harm to surrounding healthy tissues
• Adapting to treat tumors of varying thickness or type by quickly adjusting particle beam energy during treatment
• Improvement and research in medical particle accelerator facilities
• Possibly used for research in non-medical particle irradiation where fast changes in beam energy and high acceptance are needed

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Enables much faster changes in beam energy, reducing treatment time for patients
• Improves dose accuracy and conformity to the tumor, minimizing exposure to healthy tissue
• Allows treating a wider range of tumor sizes and locations without slow mechanical or magnet adjustments
• Increases operational flexibility and throughput at particle therapy centers
• Reduces mechanical wear and energy consumption by avoiding frequent adjustments of large magnets
• Potential for simpler and more robust gantry control systems, increasing system reliability

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Inventors & Applicants

Patent Abstract

The present invention provides a movable gantry (2') for delivery of a particle beam using beam scanning technique, for example for the cancer treatment in human tissue; comprising: a) an inlet section (6) for an accelerated particle beam comprising a number of quadrupole magnets ; b) a first bending section (8) and optionally a second bending section (12) comprising a number of dipole and quadrupole magnets and optionally further magnets for beam correction; c) a transfer section comprising a number of quadrupole magnets and optionally further magnets for beam correction and a degrader (D); d) a last beam bending section (16) comprising a number of separate and/or combined dipole/quadrupole/higher order multipole magnets forming an achromatic section, wherein all magnets of this achromatic last bending section (16) are located downstream of the degrader (D); any dispersion in this achromatic last bending section (16) is suppressed so that it will have a momentum acceptance of more than ±5%; e) a scanning section (15) comprising two separate or one combined fast deflection magnets (K1, K2) that deflect the beam at the iso-center in a direction perpendicular to the beam direction to perform lateral scanning; and f) a beam nozzle section (18) comprising a beam nozzle and optionally beam handling equipment, such as further beam degrading or modifying elements and/or beam quality related beam verifying elements. This combination of a degrader mounted in the gantry and a design of the gantry's beam transport magnets with a large momentum acceptance creates a possibility to increase the energy acceptance of the last bending section in the gantry and implement new dose application techniques, such as a fast change of proton energy at the patient without changing the magnetic field of the last bending section in the gantry.