Disclosed herein is a waveguide cell having a helical cavity. The waveguide cell has a central axis and a cavity having a transverse cross section whose rotational position about the central axis varies along the central axis. There is also disclosed a method a determining the shape of a waveguide cell.

A beam shaping assembly (10) used in a neutron capture system and capable of changing an irradiation range of a neutron beam. The beam shaping assembly includes: a beam inlet (11), a target (12), a moderator (13) adjoining the target (12), a reflector (14) surrounding the moderator (13), a thermal neutron absorber (15) adjoining the moderator (13), a radiation shield (16) arranged inside the beam shaping assembly (10), and a beam outlet (17). The beam shaping assembly (10) further includes replacement components (21, 22) that can be attached to and detached from the beam shaping assembly (10) to change the irradiation range of the neutron beam.

A treatment planning system for generating a plan for treatment by radiation with charged particles beams applied by pencil beam scanning onto a target tissue comprising tumoral cells is provided. The treatment planning system performs a dose definition stage defining the doses to be deposited within the peripheral surface, a beam definition stage defining positions and dimensions of the beamlets of the PBS during the at least one high rate fraction, the beams definition stage including a dose rate definition stage comprising at least one high rate fraction, and a beamlets scanning sequence stage defining a scanning sequence of irradiation of the beamlets. The beamlets scanning sequence stage optimizes a time sequence of beamlets emission such that at the end of a fraction j, a dose is deposited onto at least a predefined fraction of each specific volume at a mean deposition rate superior or equal to a predefined value.

Methods, devices and systems for ultra-high dose radiotherapy are disclosed. The described techniques rely in-part on active switching control of a photoconductive switch during the time the accelerator is accelerating charged particles to produce the output radiation at the desired dose rates. One flash radiotherapy system includes an induction accelerator, and a controllable switch coupled to the induction accelerator. The switch is operable to produce a plurality of voltage pulses to drive the induction accelerator. The radiotherapy system also includes a radiation measurement device to measure output radiation produced by the radiotherapy system and provide feedback to the controllable switch. The controllable switch is operable to, based on the received feedback, modify an amplitude, shape, spacing, number or width of the voltage pulses that are supplied to the particle accelerator to deliver the desired output radiation.

A neutron capture therapy apparatus includes a neutron beam irradiation system, a detection system and a monitoring system. The neutron beam irradiation system is configured for generating a neutron beam. The detection system is configured for detecting real-time irradiation parameters during a neutron beam irradiation therapy process. The monitoring system is configured for controlling the whole neutron beam irradiation process and includes an input part for inputting preset irradiation parameters, a determination part for determining whether the irradiation parameters need to be corrected and a correction part for correcting some of the irradiation parameters when the determination part determines that the irradiation parameters need to be corrected. When the ratio of the real-time neutron dose detected by the detection system to a preset neutron dose is greater than or equal to a preset value, the determination part of the monitoring system determines that the irradiation parameters need to be corrected.

The dose rate of voxels within a particle beam (e.g., proton beam) treatment field delivered using pencil beam scanning (PBS) is calculated, and a representative dose rate for the particle beam treatment field is reported. The calculations account for a dose accumulation in a local region or a sub-volume (e.g., a voxel) as a function of time.

A neutron capture therapy system, including a vacuum tube for transmitting a charged particle beam, a neutron generating part for generating a neutron beam, and a beam shaping assembly for shaping the neutron beam. The beam shaping assembly is provided with an accommodating part. The neutron generating part is disposed at an end of the vacuum tube. The vacuum tube has a first position and a second position. The neutron capture therapy system further includes a removal device, which includes a moving part that drives the vacuum tube to move. The moving part has a third position and a fourth position. When the moving part is in the third position, the vacuum tube is in the first position. When the moving part is in the fourth position, the vacuum tube is in the second position, and the neutron generating part is located at the outer side of the beam shaping assembly.

A high gradient linear accelerating structure can propagate high frequency waves at a negative harmonic to accelerate low-energy ions. The linear accelerating structure can provide a gradient of 50 MV/m for particles at a β of between 0.3 and 0.4. The high gradient structure can be a part of a linear accelerator configured to provide an energy range from an ion source to 450 MeV/u for .sup.12C.sup.6+ and 250 MeV for protons. The linear accelerator can include one or more of the following sections: a radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator operating at the sub-harmonic of the S-band frequency, a high gradient structure for the energy range from ˜45 MeV/u to ˜450 MeV/u.

A particle beam apparatus includes: an electromagnet to which each ion beam from a plurality of ion sources having different ion species is capable of being introduced, and from which one of the ion beams is capable of selectively exiting to a device on a downstream side by switching a magnetic field intensity, in which the electromagnet is capable of deflecting the one of the ion beam to be exited to the device on the downstream side toward the device on the downstream side, and is capable of reducing exit of a different type of beam mixed in the ion beam to the device on the downstream side, the different type of beam being different from the one of the ion beam.

These teachings facilitate the administration of therapeutic radiation to a heterogeneous patient volume using a radiation beam source. More particularly, these teachings provide for determining a cross-sectional size of a radiation beam as corresponds to that radiation beam source and also for determining density information corresponding to the aforementioned heterogeneous body. These teachings then provide for generating a three-dimensional radiation dose calculation for the heterogeneous body using a control circuit configured as a convolution/superposition based dose calculator using a three-dimensional energy-spreading kernel. By one approach, these teachings provide for the calculator scaling total energy released per mass as a function of the cross-sectional size and energy of the radiation beam and the aforementioned density information.