PROOF (PRecision dOsimetry in FLASH radiotherapy with Optical Fibers)

Principal Investigator: 
Dr. Pierluigi Casolaro, Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics (AEC), Laboratory for High Energy Physics (LHEP), University of Bern. For more information, please visit the website.

Radiotherapy is a well-established cancer treatment which uses ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells. Side effects mainly result from the irradiation of healthy tissues. Recent findings demonstrated a remarkable reduction in healthy tissue damage when high radiation doses are delivered in very short times (FLASH effect). Among the scientific challenges necessary for the implementation of the FLASH therapy into a clinical practice, radiation dosimetry is crucial. Dosimeters used in conventional radiotherapy fail under the extremely high dose-rates of FLASH irradiations. The PROOF project aims at realizing the first high-precision dosimeters for FLASH therapy based on scintillation materials and optical fibers.