TOMSK, Mar 21 – RIA Tomsk. Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), including a graduate student from Syria, carry out practical tests in 2019 based on the university cyclotron for modernization the neutron therapeutic channel; it will improve the effectiveness of neutron therapy during oncological diseases, the press service of the university reported on Thursday.
A cyclotron – is a cyclic resonant accelerator of heavy particles (protons, ions). According to the press service, over the past 40 years more than 2 thousand patients from Siberia and the Far East have undergone neural therapy at the medical-biological complex of the TPU cyclotron. Currently, the installation parameters need to be improved in order to obtain more efficient results.
"The main advantage of neutron therapy: neutrons destroy damaged tissue irreversibly, there is no relapse after that. But there are also negative aspects connected with the effect of neutrons on healthy tissues of the body. It is always important that the positive effect exceeds the negative one", – the head of the TPU Laboratory for Radioactive Substances and Technologies Vladimir Golovkov is quoted in the message.
Beam optimization
Over the optimization of the characteristics of the neutron beam, which will reduce the negative effects of neutron radiation, a TPU graduate student from Syria Abdullah Shihada is working in the laboratory.
"The cyclotron accelerates particles, they fall on a beryllium target, in which neutrons are released as a result of a nuclear reaction. They leave the target with a kind of "torch". It needs to be focused, to get a narrow beam aimed exactly at the tissue damaged by oncological diseases", – explains the scientist.
This method will provide the most effective dose of radiation for treatment, but safer for healthy areas. The practical part of the study will be conducted on the TPU cyclotron in 2019. Now polytechnicians are working to create a system which would help focus the neutron beam literally up to one centimeter in diameter.
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"To achieve this result, it is necessary to carry out thorough calculations with taking into account all the important factors: the distribution of the dose received by the tissues taking into account radiobiological efficiency, geometric conditions, types of sources, energy, angular distribution, and so on. It is this work that Abdullah Shihada is engaged in", – specifies the press service.
"In my work, I use the simulation of the motion of each neutron by the Monte Carlo method – it is a universal tool for calculating the characteristics of neutron fluxes. For modeling is used a special program, in which data are entered. And in some versions of the calculations it has already turned out that it is possible to increase efficiency of use of neutrons by several tens of percent", – summarizes the graduate student.
"In the work I use modeling of the movement of each neutron by Monte Carlo method – it is the universal tool for calculation of characteristics of neutron streams. For modeling the special program in which data are entered is used. And in some options of calculations already it turned out that it is possible to increase efficiency of use of neutrons by several tens of percent", – the graduate student summarizes.
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TPU graduate student Abdullah Shihada