A GEANT4 Web-based Application to Support Intra-Operative Electron Radio-Therapy using the European Grid Infrastructure

Radiotherapy techniques permit to deliver ionizing radiations (X-rays, photons, electrons, protons, etc) inside cancerous tissues to kill the abnormal-cells. Radiotherapy related activities, as the optimization of the therapeutic radiation dose to the patient, worker radioprotection, performance controls and technical innovations of linear accelerators, are strongly based on the ability to predict the dose distribution. Monte Carlo simulations are the most accurate tools in this field but, unfortunately, they require large computing power to achieve accurate results in reasonable times. In the last years, advanced cancer treatment clinical and research communities have adopted e-Infrastructures to reduce this gap. The present paper reports on the developments of a computing facility for helping physicians, radiotherapists and medical physical in using modern R&E networking and distributed resources to address some technical and clinical Intra-Operative Electron Radio-Therapy (IOERT) needs (e.g. the design of the linear accelerator collimation system or the optimization of the patient therapeutic dose distribution). Keywords— IOERT, Monte Carlo simulation, GEANT4, Distributed Computing Resources, Catania Science Gateway framework.