RadiaBeam, Santa Monica, California, USA
UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
Emerging evidence indicates that the therapeutic window of radiotherapy can be significantly increased using ultra-high dose rate dose delivery (FLASH), by which the normal tissue injury is reduced without compromising tumor cell killing. The dose rate required for FLASH is 40 Gy/s or higher, 2-3 orders of magnitude greater than conventional radiotherapy. Among the major technical challenges in achieving the FLASH dose rate with X-rays is a linear accelerator that is capable of producing such a high dose rate. We will discuss the design of a high dose rate 18 MeV linac capable of delivering 100 Gy/s of collimated X-rays at 20 cm. This linac is being developed by a RadiaBeam/UCLA collaboration for a preclinical system as a demonstration of the FLASH effect in small animals.
