Background
At present, photon or charged particle therapy is limited by the nature of radiation, can cause great damage to normal tissues of a radiation passing area while killing tumor cells, and is often poor in curative effect of traditional radiotherapy for high-radiation-resistance tumor cells such as multi-row glioblastoma, melanoma and the like. The neutron capture treatment with small radiation damage of normal tissues around the tumor and high relative biological effect in a target area provides better cancer treatment selection than the traditional ray by means of the specific accumulation of boron-containing drugs in tumor cells and the matching of the neutron beam with accurate regulation and control.
Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) utilizes Boron (B: (B-N-B-N-C-B-N-B-C-B-N-C-B-C (B-N-C-B-C, B-C-B-C, B-C-B-C-B-C-B-C-B-C10B) The thermal neutron capture section is very large, boron (10B) is enriched in a tumor area, and thermal neutrons/epithermal neutrons pass through biological tissues with certain thickness10B(n,α)7Reaction of Li to produce4He and7two charged particles of Li with average energy of 0.84MeV and 1.47MeV respectively have high LET and short range, wherein the LET and range of alpha particle are 150 keV/mum, 4-5 μm, and7li is 175 keV/mum and 8-9 μm, and the range of the Li and the Li is in the range of cell scale, which is equivalent to the size of a cell, so that the radiation damage to organisms is limited at the cell level. When the boron-carrying medicine selectively gathers in tumor cells and is matched with a proper neutron radioactive source, the aim of locally killing the tumor cells can be achieved on the premise of not causing too much damage to normal tissues.
The efficacy of boron neutron capture therapy depends on boron in the tumor cells (B10B) The concentration and the number of thermal neutrons reaching the region, therefore, besides the development of high-performance boron-containing drugs, the improvement of the neutron source beam quality also plays an important role in boron neutron capture treatment.
Chinese patent application publication No. CN104548388B discloses a beam shaper for neutron capture therapy, and provides a beam shaper for neutron capture therapy, wherein the beam shaper includes a beam inlet, a target, a retarder adjacent to the target, a reflector surrounding the retarder, a thermal neutron absorber adjacent to the retarder, a radiation shield disposed within the beam shaper, and a beam outlet. The target and a proton beam incident from a beam inlet are subjected to nuclear reaction to generate neutrons, the neutrons form a neutron beam, the neutron beam defines a main shaft, the retarder decelerates the neutrons generated from the target to a super-thermal neutron energy region, the retarder is arranged to be in a shape containing at least one cone, the reflector enables the neutrons deviating from the main shaft to reach the main shaft to improve the intensity of the super-thermal neutron beam, the thermal neutron absorber is used for absorbing the thermal neutrons to avoid excessive dose with superficial tissues during treatment, and the radiation shield is used for shielding leaked neutrons and photons to reduce normal tissue dose of a non-irradiation region. This patent suffers from the following drawbacks:
(1) the moderator is an integrally formed cone-shaped moderator, the moderator with the structure is not beneficial to processing and manufacturing, and the neutron flux after moderation can not meet the effect of treating deep tumors;
(2) the proton incident pipeline is a hollow cylinder, the hollow cylinder channel easily enables more neutrons leaking from the area, the utilization rate is not high, and the damage to the accelerator end is also caused.
Disclosure of Invention
The present invention is directed to one or more of the problems in the prior art, and provides a beam line integer for neutron capture therapy, which is designed to solve the technical problems set forth in the background above.
The invention provides a beam shaping body for neutron capture treatment, which comprises a proton beam channel, a target body, a moderating body, a reflector body surrounding the moderating body and the proton beam channel, a thermal neutron absorbing layer adjacent to the moderating body, a gamma shielding layer adjacent to the thermal neutron absorbing layer, and a collimating body arranged in the beam shaping body, and is characterized in that: the moderating body is internally provided with a target body which is arranged at the tail end of a proton beam pore passage.
In a specific embodiment, the moderator is cylindrical stepped shaft, and the number of the stepped shaft sections is 2-10.
In a specific embodiment, the moderator body has a maximum outside diameter of the stepped axial end surface adjacent the target portion and a minimum outside diameter of the stepped axial end surface adjacent the thermal neutron absorbing layer portion.
In a specific embodiment, the stepped shaft section with the largest outer diameter surrounds the tail end of the proton beam current channel;
the target body is arranged in the stepped shaft section with the largest outer diameter and is arranged at the tail end of the proton beam channel.
In a specific embodiment, a gap exists between the stepped shaft section with the smallest outer diameter and the reflector, and the gap ranges from 1 mm to 20 mm;
the thermal neutron absorbing layer is adjacent to the stepped shaft section with the smallest outer diameter.
In a specific embodiment, the proton beam passage is cylindrical, and an annular blocking block is arranged in the proton beam passage.
In a specific embodiment, the thermal neutron absorbing layer has an outer diameter greater than an outer diameter of the moderator.
In a specific embodiment, the thickness of each stepped shaft section ranges from 50mm to 100 mm.
In a specific embodiment, the difference of the outer diameters between two adjacent stepped shaft sections is 0-50 mm.
In a specific embodiment, the distance between the barrier inside the proton beam pore channel and the target body is 50-500 mm.
The beam line integer for neutron capture treatment provided by the invention has the following beneficial effects:
1. the moderator is designed to be cylindrical stepped shaft-shaped, so that the structural design is easier to process, maintain or replace, the assembly and disassembly are convenient, and the moderator in the cylindrical stepped shaft shape can effectively avoid straight-through beam;
2. the target body is arranged in the slowing-down body, and the depth of the target body extending into the slowing-down body is not less than 50mm, so that the recoil neutrons can be fully slowed down, and the epithermal neutron flux of an outlet can be improved;
3. in the invention, a gap is formed between the stepped shaft section of the moderator with the smallest outer diameter and the reflector, so that the leakage of the epithermal neutrons at the leading-out port can be increased, and the epithermal neutron flux is improved;
4. the annular blocking block is arranged in the proton beam pore passage, so that the leakage of the recoil neutrons to the accelerator end is reduced, the irradiation dose to the accelerator end is reduced, the epithermal neutron flux at the outlet is increased, and the loss of the epithermal neutron beam is reduced.
Drawings
For a better understanding of the invention, embodiments thereof will be described with reference to the following drawings:
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the first embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the second embodiment;
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the third embodiment;
FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the fourth embodiment;
FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the fifth embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a first modification;
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the neutron spectrum relationship in the extraction port between the first modification (A) and the first embodiment (B);
FIG. 8 is a graph of the neutron spectrum of the exit between example one (B) and example two (C);
FIG. 9 is a graph of the exit neutron spectrum between example two (C) and example three (D);
FIG. 10 is a graph of the exit neutron spectrum between example three (D) and example four (E);
wherein, in the figures, the respective reference numerals:
1-beam line integer, 11-proton beam pore canal, 12-target, 13-moderator, 131-front end, 132-middle end, 133-back end, 14-reflector, 15-thermal neutron absorption layer, 16-radiation shielding layer, 17-collimator, 18-outlet, 19-gap, and 20-blocking block.
Detailed Description
Specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below, and it should be noted that the embodiments described herein are only for illustration and are not intended to limit the present invention. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that: it is not necessary to employ these specific details to practice the present invention. In other instances, well-known circuits, materials, or methods have not been described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.
Throughout the specification, reference to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," "one example," or "an example" means: the particular features, structures, or characteristics described in connection with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment," "in an embodiment," "one example" or "an example" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable combination and/or sub-combination in one or more embodiments or examples. Further, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the drawings provided herein are for illustrative purposes and are not necessarily drawn to scale. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "coupled" or "connected" to another element, it can be directly coupled or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly coupled" or "directly connected" to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Like reference numerals refer to like elements. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Example one
The existing moderating body for moderating the neutron beam current is generally integrally formed into a cone shape, the moderating body with the structure is not beneficial to processing and manufacturing, and the neutron flux after moderation cannot meet the effect of treating deep tumors.
As shown in fig. 1, the embodiment of the present invention includes a proton beam channel and a target, and the direction of proton incidence is the positive direction, one end of the proton beam channel is connected to an accelerator, and the other end is connected to the target; the proton incident position is the front end, and the extraction port is the back end (i.e. the super-thermal neutron beam ejection end), so that the target body is arranged at the tail end of the proton beam channel.
The beam shaping body also comprises a moderator, a reflector surrounding the moderator and the proton beam channel, a thermal neutron absorbing layer adjacent to the moderator, a gamma shielding layer adjacent to the thermal neutron absorbing layer, and a collimator arranged in the beam shaping body; in addition, the target body is arranged in the moderating body, namely the target body is wrapped in the moderating body; and the thermal neutron absorbing layer has an outer diameter larger than an outer diameter of the moderator.
Example two
As shown in FIG. 2, the present embodiment is optimized based on the first embodiment, specifically, the moderator in the present embodiment is a cylindrical stepped shaft, and the number of the stepped shaft sections is 2 to 10, preferably 3 to 8, and most preferably 5. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that: the moderating body can sequentially comprise a front end body, a plurality of middle end bodies and a rear end body by taking a proton incidence position as a front end, wherein the front end body, the middle end bodies and the rear end body form a cylindrical stepped shaft-shaped moderating body, and the number of stepped shaft sections of the middle end body is 0-8, preferably 0-6, and most preferably 3; and the stepped shaft sections are distributed in a gradually decreasing manner according to different outer diameters with the proton incidence direction as the positive direction (as is easily understood by those skilled in the art, the front end body, the middle end body and the rear end body are distributed in a gradually decreasing manner according to different outer diameters, and the stepped shaft sections of the middle end body are distributed in a gradually decreasing manner according to different outer diameters), at this time, the stepped shaft section has the largest outer diameter of the stepped shaft end surface close to the target body part (as is easily understood by those skilled in the art, the stepped shaft section with the largest outer diameter is the front end body), and the stepped shaft end surface with the smallest outer diameter of the stepped shaft end surface close to the thermal neutron absorbing layer part (as is easily understood by those skilled in the art, the stepped shaft section with the smallest outer diameter is the rear end body). In addition to the positive direction of proton incidence, those skilled in the art will also understand that: and the outer diameter of the stepped shaft section is gradually reduced in the direction that the stepped shaft is close to the thermal neutron absorption layer part. The thickness range of each stepped shaft section is 50-100 mm, preferably 50mm, the difference of the outer diameters between two adjacent stepped shaft sections is 0-50 mm, preferably 20mm, the structure of the moderating body is easier to process, maintain or replace, the assembly and disassembly are also convenient, the cylindrical stepped shaft-shaped moderating body can effectively avoid direct beam, the flux of the super-thermal neutron beam can be greatly improved on the premise of not improving the proton targeting power, and the economy of the beam-shaped integer is improved.
It should be noted that, in the process of the embodiment of the present invention, the moderator may be in the shape of a circular truncated cone stepped shaft, or may be in the shape of a stepped shaft.
Meanwhile, the front end body (the stepped shaft section with the largest outer diameter) surrounds the tail end of the proton beam flow channel and is used for moderating the recoil neutrons and improving the epithermal neutron flux of the leading-out opening, the target body is arranged in the front end body (the stepped shaft section with the largest outer diameter) and is arranged at the tail end of the proton beam flow channel, and the depth of the target body penetrating into the moderating body is not less than 50mm, so that the recoil neutrons can be sufficiently moderated.
In addition, the outer diameter of the thermal neutron absorption layer is larger than that of the front end body (the stepped shaft section with the largest outer diameter), and the thermal neutron absorption layer is used for absorbing thermal neutrons, preventing the thermal neutrons from escaping, and avoiding excessive dosage caused by the thermal neutrons and superficial tissues during treatment; and a gamma shielding layer adjacent to the thermal neutron absorbing layer for shielding the leaked neutrons and photons to reduce the normal tissue dose in the non-irradiation region.
EXAMPLE III
As shown in fig. 3, the present embodiment is further optimized based on the second embodiment, specifically, a gap exists between the rear end body (the stepped shaft section with the smallest outer diameter) of the present embodiment and the reflector, the designed gap cannot be too large, the too large gap can significantly increase the fast neutron component of the extraction opening, the gap cannot be too small, and the too small gap can increase the epithermal neutron component of the extraction opening to a limited extent, so the gap range is 1-20 mm, preferably 10mm, which can increase the epithermal neutron leakage of the extraction opening, improve the epithermal neutron flux, and the rear end body (the stepped shaft section with the smallest outer diameter) is adjacent to the thermal neutron absorption layer, thus having better economy.
Example four
As shown in fig. 4, the present embodiment is further optimized based on the third embodiment, specifically, the proton beam channel of the present embodiment is hollow cylindrical, an annular blocking block is disposed in the proton beam channel, and the blocking block is disposed at a position 50-500 mm away from the target body, and the blocking block is preferably disposed at a position 50mm away from the target body in the present embodiment.
EXAMPLE five
As shown in fig. 5, in this embodiment, compared with the fourth embodiment, the difference is that the blocking block is disposed at a position 500mm away from the target body, which can also reduce leakage of the recoil neutrons generated by proton targeting along the proton beam channel, and at the same time, the epithermal neutron flux at the exit can also be increased after the neutrons are moderated.
Modification example 1
As shown in fig. 6, the present modification is different from the first embodiment in that: the target body of this modification is not provided in the moderator, but is provided on the front surface of the moderator and at the end of the proton beam path.
Comparative example 1
Through experimental comparison, the neutron fluence (n/cm) of the extraction ports of the first modification and the first embodiment is obtained2Comparative data table for/p) is as follows:
as shown in the drawing of the neutron spectrum relationship at the extraction port between the first modification (a) and the first modification (B) in fig. 7, it can be seen that the total neutron fluence rate of the first modification is equivalent to that of the first modification by wrapping the target body with the moderator material, but the epithermal neutron fluence rate of the first modification is higher and the epithermal neutron occupancy ratio is significantly improved.
Comparative example No. two
Through experimental comparison, the neutron fluence (n/cm) of the extraction ports of the first embodiment and the second embodiment is obtained2Comparative data table for/p) is as follows:
as shown in the graph of the neutron spectrum relationship at the extraction port between the first embodiment (B) and the second embodiment (C) in fig. 8, it can be seen that, when the moderator in the second embodiment has a cylindrical stepped shaft shape, the total neutron fluence rates of the first embodiment and the second embodiment are equivalent, but the epithermal neutron fluence rate of the second embodiment is higher, and the epithermal neutron ratio is significantly improved.
Comparative example No. three
Through experimental comparison, the neutron fluence (n/cm) of the extraction ports of the second embodiment and the third embodiment is obtained2Comparative data table for/p) is as follows:
as shown in the graph of the neutron spectrum relationship at the extraction port between the second embodiment (C) and the third embodiment (D) in fig. 9, it can be seen that, when a gap is provided between the rear end body (the stepped shaft section having the smallest outer diameter) and the reflector in the third embodiment, the total neutron fluence rate is higher and the epithermal neutron fluence rate is also improved.
Comparative example No. four
Through experimental comparison, the neutron fluence rates (n/cm) of the extraction ports of the third embodiment, the fourth embodiment and the fifth embodiment are obtained2Comparative data table for/p) is as follows:
as shown in fig. 10, the energy spectrum diagram of the neutrons at the extraction port between the third embodiment (D) and the fourth embodiment (E) shows that the fourth embodiment and the fifth embodiment respectively use the blocking block, and although the blocking block is disposed at a different position, the total neutron fluence rate at the extraction port is significantly improved, the epithermal neutron fluence rate and the epithermal neutron occupancy are significantly improved, and the leakage recoil neutrons in the proton beam channel are significantly reduced.
In addition, in the process of all the embodiments, the modifications and the comparative examples of the present invention, it is to be noted that: fast neutrons are mentioned as being above 10keV, epithermal neutrons are mentioned as being between 0.5eV and 10keV, and thermal neutrons are mentioned as being below 0.5 eV.
The above embodiments are only specific embodiments of the present invention, and the description thereof is specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the present invention. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications are possible without departing from the inventive concept, and such obvious alternatives fall within the scope of the invention.