Modeling the Action of Protons and Heavier Ions in Biological Targets: Nuclear Interactions in Hadrontherapy and Space Radiation Protection

Tumor treatment with protons and Carbon ions can allow for a better optimization of Tumor Control Probability and Normal Tissue Complication Probability, especially for radio-resistant tumors. Exposure to protons and heavier ions is also of concern for manned space missions such as future travels to the Moon and Mars. Nuclear reactions with the human body constituents, the beam line components (for hadrontherapy) and the spacecraft walls and shielding (for space radiation protection) can significantly modify the characteristics of the primary radiation field and thus the dose distributions in the various target tissues. In this context the FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code, integrated with radiobiological data and coupled with anthropomorphic phantoms, was applied to the characterization of therapeutic proton beams and the calculation of space radiation organ doses, with focus on the role of nuclear interactions. Besides absorbed and equivalent doses, distributions of "biological" dose (modeled as the average number of DNA clustered lesions per cell induced in a given organ or tissue) were calculated as well. Concerning space radiation protection, exposure to Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) and Solar Particle Events (SPE) under different shielding conditions was simulated. Both for hadrontherapy and for space radiation exposure, nuclear reaction products were found to play a more important role for the equivalent and "biological" dose than for the absorbed dose. Furthermore, while for SPEs the doses (both absorbed and equivalent/"biological") decreased dramatically by increasing the shield thickness, the GCR doses showed a slight shielding dependence. Overall, these examples of application of FLUKA to radiotherapy and radiation protection problems emphasized the need of further models and data, typically double-differential cross sections for nucleus-nucleus interactions at energies below a few hundred MeV/n.