GANTRY COMPRISING BEAM ANALYSER FOR USE IN PARTICLE THERAPY

• US 20120280150A1
• Filed: 04/19/2012
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ion Beam Applications s.a.
• Original Assignee: Ion Beam Applications s.a.
• Inventors: Jongen, Yves
• Granted Patent: US 9,289,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/492.3
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 2005/1087 Ions; Protons
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/10 X-ray therapy; Gamma-ray therapy; Particle-irradiation therapy A61N5/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/1081 Rotating beam systems with a specific mechanical construction, e.g. gantries
• CPC Class Codes: G21K 1/093 by magnetic means
• CPC Class Codes: G21K 5/04 with beam-forming means

Abstract

The present invention relates to a particle therapy apparatus used for radiation therapy. More particularly, this invention relates to a gantry for delivering particle beams which comprises means to analyse the incoming beam. Means are integrated into the gantry to limit the momentum spread of the beam and/or the emittance of the beam.

Claims

1. A rotatable gantry (15) for receiving, transporting and delivering a particle beam along a beam path to a target for use in particle therapy, said gantry comprising an entrance point (45) for entering the particle beam in a direction substantially along a rotation axis of the gantry, characterized in that the gantry (15) comprises means (43) for limiting a momentum spread of the particles of the beam to a selected maximum value;

2. A gantry (15) according to claim 1, characterized in that the means (43) for limiting the momentum spread of the particles of the beam are located at a position along the beam path where the particles of the beam are dispersed according to their momentum ;

3. A gantry (15) according to claim 2 characterized in that the means (43) for limiting the momentum spread of the particles of the beam are located at a position along the beam path where a nominal dispersion according to a momentum of a particle is larger than a nominal beam size at said position, said nominal dispersion being defined as a transversal displacement of a particle whose momentum differs by 1% (one percent) of an average momentum P of all particles of the beam, said nominal beam size being defined as a one sigma beam size value of a mono-energetic particle beam having the average momentum P;

4. A gantry (15) according to anyone of preceding claims, characterized in that the gantry (15) further comprises means (42) for limiting a transverse emittance of the particle beam to a selected maximum value;

5. A gantry (15) according to claim 4 characterized in that the means (42) for limiting the transverse emittance of the beam are located upstream of the means (43) for limiting the momentum spread of the particles of the beam;

6. A gantry (15) according to anyone of claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the means (42) for limiting the transverse emittance of the beam are emittance slits or apertures or collimators;

7. A gantry (15) according to anyone of preceding claims, characterized in that the means (43) for limiting the momentum spread of the particles of the beam are momentum analysing slits or apertures or collimators;

8. A particle therapy apparatus (100) comprising a particle beam generator (40), an energy degrader (41) for reducing a momentum of said particle beam and a gantry (15) according to anyone of preceding claims;

9. A particle therapy apparatus (100) comprising a particle beam generator (40), an energy degrader (41) for reducing a momentum of said particle beam, a collimator for limiting an emittance of said particle beam and a gantry (15) according to anyone of preceding claims, said collimator being located in-between the energy degrader (41) and the gantry (15);