Estimation of Nuclear Interaction for $^{11}C$ Cancer Therapy

Cancer therapy using high-energy $^{12}$ C ions is successfully under way at HIMAC, Japan. An alternative beam to $^{12}$ C is $^{11}$ C ions. The merit of $^{11}$ C over $^{12}$ C is its capability for monitoring spatial distribution of the irradiated $^{11}$ C by observing the $\beta$$^{+}$ decay with a good position resolution. One of the several problems to be solved before its use for therapy is the amount of nuclear interaction that deteriorates the dose concentration owing to the Bragg curve. Utilizing the dedicated secondary beam course for R&D studies at HIMAC, we measured the total energy loss of $^{11}$ C ions in a scintillator block that simulates the soft tissue in human bodies. In addition to the total absorption $^{11}$ C peak, non-negligible bump-shaped contribution is observed in the energy spectrum. The origin of the bump contribution can be nuclear interaction of the incident $^{11}$ C ions with hydrogen and carbon atoms. Further studies to reduce the ambiguity in dose distribution are mentioned.