%0 Journal Article
%A Baltazar, Filipa
%A Tessonnier, Thomas
%A Mein, Stewart
%A Liermann, Jakob
%A Qubala, Abdallah
%A Debus, Jürgen
%A Mairani, Andrea
%T Development and dosimetric verification of static SHArc: Step-and-shoot carbon ion arc therapy for LETd escalation in pancreatic tumors.
%J Medical physics
%V 52
%N 10
%@ 0094-2405
%C Hoboken, NJ
%I Wiley
%M DKFZ-2025-02062
%P e70055
%D 2025
%Z #EA:E050#LA:E210#
%X Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) offers higher linear energy transfer (LET) and superior relative biological effectiveness, making it a promising option for treating hypoxic, radioresistant tumors. Spot-scanning Hadron Arc (SHArc) therapy enables dose-averaged LET (LETd) escalation in the tumor but increases planning and setup complexity. Dynamic delivery remains impractical for gantry-based carbon ion arc therapy due to the system's large size and complex control requirements. Step-and-shoot delivery, while less efficient, provides a feasible alternative and represents a key step towards clinical SHArc implementation.This work establishes the first step-and-shoot planning and delivery technique for carbon ion arc therapy (static SHArc) at the Heidelberg Ion-beam Therapy Center using the gantry system. Static SHArc therapy is evaluated in terms of plan quality and delivery feasibility for pancreatic cancer.Static SHArc plans were optimized for seven pancreatic cancer cases, considering 20 gantry angles. Two distinct energy layer (EL) selection techniques were investigated: (1) Central EL, selecting the seven central ELs per beam, and (2) MU-Based EL, prioritizing ELs contributing the highest monitor units (MU). LETd optimization was performed to escalate the minimum LETd to ∼50-80 keV/µm within the gross tumor volume. Static SHArc plans were compared against conventional IMPT using two single-field optimized posterior oblique beams (2-SFO), in terms of dose conformality, LETd, and robustness against setup (5 mm) and range (1.5
%K Heavy Ion Radiotherapy: methods
%K Pancreatic Neoplasms: radiotherapy
%K Humans
%K Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted: methods
%K Radiometry
%K Radiotherapy Dosage
%K Linear Energy Transfer
%K LETd‐boosting (Other)
%K heavy‐ion gantry (Other)
%K pancreatic cancer (Other)
%K spot‐scanning hadron arc (Other)
%K static arc (Other)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:41058526
%2 pmc:PMC12505198
%R 10.1002/mp.70055
%U https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/305214