ABSTRACT

Proton and ion beam therapies have gained importance recently with, at the time of this writing, 38 centers in operation and 22 under construction (https://ptcog.web.psi.ch/). Given the nature of curative radiotherapy (the aim of achieving as high a cure rate as possible with as low as possible severe side effects), uncertainty requirements for proton and ion beam dosimetry are as stringent as for any other form of radiotherapy. Proton and ion Monte Carlo simulations play a crucial role at different levels of the dosimetry chain: in primary standards and reference instruments for the calculation of perturbations and in relative dosimetry for the calculation of both perturbations and the energy dependence of many detectors.