Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mini-Beam Radiation in Cancer Therapy

Main aim:

To investigate the mechanisms triggering the FLASH effect and the possibility of combination of FLASH and mini-beam techniques in Cancer Therapy.
In recent years irradiations with ultra-high dose rates (FLASH) have garnered attention due to the increased differential response between normal tissue and cancer. The FLASH effect is characterized by the radioprotection of the healthy tissue while persevering the clinical tumor control achieved by conventional radiotherapy, but the mechanisms that may lead to the flash effect FLASH are being investigated.
In this work, the properties of the chemical species generated through the radiolysis of water are investigated as a possible surrogate of the FLASH effect. The modeling perfomed will then be applied to the investigation of the combined application of FLASH and mini-beams to Cancer therapy.