Physical characterization of 3He ion beams for radiotherapy and comparison with 4He

There is increasing interest in using helium ions for radiotherapy, complementary to protons and carbon ions. A large number of patients were treated with 4He ions in the US heavy ion therapy project and novel 4He ion treatment programs are under preparation, for instance in Germany and Japan. 3He ions have been proposed as an alternative to 4He ions because the acceleration of 3He is technically less difficult than 4He. In particular, beam contaminations have been pointed out as a potential safety issue for 4He ion beams. This motivated a series of experiments with 3He ion beams at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), Darmstadt. Measured 3He Bragg curves and fragmentation data in water are presented in this work. Those experimental data are compared with FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations. The physical characteristics of 3He ion beams are compared to those of 4He, for which a large set of data became available in recent years from the preparation work at the Heidelberger Ionenstrahl-Therapiezentrum (HIT). The dose distributions (spread out Bragg peaks, lateral profiles) that can be achieved with 3He ions are found to be competitive to 4He dose distributions. The effect of beam contaminations on 4He depth dose distribution is also addressed. It is concluded that 3He ions can be a viable alternative to 4He, especially for future compact therapy accelerator designs and upgrades of existing ion therapy facilities.