Intense post-accelerated 11C beams for hadrontherapy: Treatment and at the same time 3D dose mapping by PET imaging

Hadrontherapy was introduced in the USA some decades ago and has by now widespread throughout the world, as seen with the construction of CNAO, HIT, PROSCAN, MedAustron and Etoile treatment centers. Accelerator laboratories, such as GANIL, CERN-ISOLDE and SPES, producing post-accelerated radioactive ion beams for fundamental research have in parallel been also multiplied. Here we propose to fully replace or combine carbon therapy treatments based on 12C ions with treatments using a post-accelerated 11C PET radioactive ion. This has the advantage to provide a beam for treatment and at the same time, to collect informations during or just after, on the 3D distribution of the implanted ions by PET imaging using, i.e. PET-CT scanners in the treatment rooms. This approach has already been tested at NIRS in Japan and can be seriously envisaged, notably because of the recent progresses made on 11C ion production and post-acceleration techniques. Furthermore, it presents a much higher sensitivity and flexibility than the so-called “in-beam hadrontherapy PET imaging” in the focus in the recent years.