Electric Field from a Proton Beam in Biological Tissues for Proton Radiotherapy

Proton radiotherapy uses a narrow proton beam to deliver a highly localized dose of radiation to a tumor, but verifying this dose is difficult, due to the relatively small number of protons in each beam. The authors compute the electric field produced by a proton beam moving inside five different biological tissues, and show that the magnitude and spatial profiles of the field lend themselves to measurement. These results will aid in the design and construction of electric field detectors capable of measuring the proton range, which will be a major step toward improving this therapy.