New technologies for a clinical establishment of microbeam radiation therapy

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MIcrobeam radiation therapy (MRT) is an innovative, but still preclinical approach in radiation oncology that exploits arrays of parallel, a few tens of µm wide and a few 100 µm separated beamlets. Various preclinical studies showed that these spatially fractionated radiation fields are far less toxic to healthy, tumour surrounding tissue than homogeneous radiation fields at equivalent tumour control probability. Therefore a significant benefit is expected for the radiation therapy treatment of brain tumours, but also lung tumours, where the sensitivity of the surrounding normal tissue limits the application of higher therapeutic doses. So far clinically relevant microbeams can only be generated at large third generation synchrotrons such as the European Synchrotron in Grenoble. For a clinical translation of MRT, but also for preclinical research, alternative strategies to produce microbeams are urgently required, which is the aim of this project proposal.The project consists of two parts. In the first part a special multislit collimator will be developed for a small animal irradiator to produce microbeams for preclinical in-vivo research. In the future the device will be used for radiobiological research at the technical university Munich. In the second part of the project a concept of a compact microbeam source, which was worked out by the applicant, will be further developed, such that a prototype may be built in a subsequent project. This planning study comprises various numerical simulations and the investigation of technical solutions for the various components of the radiation source. After this project the small animal microbeam source will be used for biological in-vitro and in-vivo research and the investigation of the mechanisms behind MRT, without the need to use expensive and scarce beam time at large synchrotron facilities. The experience gained when constructing the preclinical source will contribute to a future realisation of the clinical concept. Apart from microbeam radiation therapy, the concept of the compact clinical microbeam source may also be of great interest to phase contrast imaging.