Golden beam data for proton pencil-beam scanning.

Proton, as well as other ion, beams applied by electro-magnetic deflection in pencil-beam scanning (PBS) are minimally perturbed and thus can be quantified a priori by their fundamental interactions in a medium. This a priori quantification permits an optimal reduction of characterizing measurements on a particular PBS delivery system. The combination of a priori quantification and measurements will then suffice to fully describe the physical interactions necessary for treatment planning purposes.

Treatment of non-small cell lung cancer patients with proton beam-based stereotactic body radiotherapy: dosimetric comparison with photon plans highlights importance of range uncertainty.

Purpose: Proton beam radiotherapy has been proposed for use in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer. In the present study, we sought to analyze how the range uncertainties for protons might affect its therapeutic utility for SBRT.

Methods And Materials: Ten patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer received SBRT with two to three proton beams.