Geant4 simulation for a study of a possible use of carbon ion pencil beams for the treatment of ocular melanomas with the active scanning system at CNAO

The aim of this work was to study a possible use of carbon ion pencil beams (delivered with active scanning modality) for the treatment of ocular melanomas at the Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO). The promising aspect of carbon ions radiotherapy for the treatment of this disease lies in its superior relative radio-biological effectiveness (RBE). The Monte Carlo (MC) Geant4 10.00 toolkit was used to simulate the complete CNAO extraction beamline, with the active and passive components along it. A human eye modeled detector, including a realistic target tumor volume, was used as target. Cross check with previous studies at CNAO using protons allowed comparisons on possible benefits on using such a technique with respect to proton beams. Experimental data on proton and carbon ion beams transverse distributions were used to validate the simulation.