Design of Operational Radiation Protection in Compact Proton Therapy Centers (CPTC)

Proton therapy, an external radiotherapy using proton beams to treat some type of tumours with outstanding benefits, is in continuous ever evolving to improve its performance. Some prominent current trends involve cutting-edge delivery methods or raise compact building. Compact centers take in specific features to reduce their size while achieving more affordable facilities and new developments have direct impact in radioprotection. This work is framed into the research project Contributions to operational radiation protection and neutron dosimetry in compact proton therapy centers (CPTC), which is focused on designing, assessing, and commissioning their operational radiation protection. The main goal is to present and collect the activities developed from 2018 in fields as checking shielding, comparing ambient dose yielded by neutrons in several facilities, analyzing activation in shielding with different types of concrete, characterizing wide range Rem-meters to measure neutron fields, studying new proton delivery techniques and their neutron fields, or assessing personal dosemeters suitable for these centers, among others. The results reached show that future highly compact centers will have a relevant impact on the radiation protection.