Impact of range straggling and multiple scattering on proton therapy of brain, using a slab head phantom

Background: The advantages of proton beam in radiation therapy- like small lateral scattering as well as absence of exit dose tail in the organs which are after the tumor- make it capable of delivering more treatment doses to the target and much lesser to the critical tissues near it. Materials and Methods: In this study, the Monte Carlo MCNPX code has been used to simulate a slab head phantom irradiated by proton pencil beams. The simplified slab has tissue compositions of the ICRU 46, and the necessary data have been taken from adult male phantom of MIRD-ORNL family series. Results: Suitable energy range of incident proton beams has been estimated in order to have the Bragg peaks inside the brain tissue. Energy straggling or, rather, range straggling, and multiple scattering which affect the lateral broadening of incident beams, have been investigated. Conclusion: The results show that the FWHM (Full Wide in Half Maximum) increases more than six times from 1.73 mm to 10.78 mm for the energy range of 50 - 135 MeV. The FWHM values of lateral dose profiles change from 1 mm in 50 MeV to 7.5 mm in 135 MeV, and it has been shown that when a pencil beam is used to irradiate a tissue, the absorbed dose in depth along the central axis does not show a Bragg peak pattern.