Commissioning of the full energy scanning with carbon-ion beams ranging from 55.6 to 430 MeV/u in NIRS-HIMAC

Three-dimensional (3D) pencil-beam scanning technique has been utilized since 2011 at the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). At present, for depth direction, the hybrid depth scanning method has been employed, in which 11 beam energies ranging from 140 to 430 MeV/u are used in conjunction with the range shifter. To suppress the beam spread due the multiple scattering and the nuclear reaction, we have developed a full energy scanning method (FES). In FES, we prepared more than 200 energy steps with 1 or 2 mm intervals. To obtain the range of less than 1 mm without using an energy absorber such as a range shifter, the minimum energy is chosen as 55.6 MeV/u. Generally, a long time is required for accelerator tuning and beam commissioning tests for treatment by FES. In our presentation, we introduce the beam commissioning for FES in a short period of time and the performance of FES is evaluated.The 55th Annual Conference of the Particle Therapy Co-operative Group (PTCOG55