System design and method for verifying 3D dosimetric imaging of charged particles in media

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for verification of accuracy of delivery of a charged particle beam to a tumor in a human body, the method comprising:

irradiating the tumor with the charged particle beam;

receiving an ultrasound signal generated due to the irradiation of the tumor by the charged particle beam;

mapping a three-dimensional source of the ultrasound signal; wherein the ultrasound signal is formed at the source in the human body due to thermo-acoustic mechanism of a stress wave generation from energy loss of charged particles associated with the charged particle beam; and

determining a value of falloff of the ultrasound signal corresponding to a distal edge of the charged particle beam associated with a Bragg peak.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 , further comprising:

imaging the source based, at least in part, on the ultrasound signal;

digitally describing the source based, at least in part, on voxel-wise domestic data; and

reconstructing spatial energy and dose deposited and proton range in a direction based, at least in part, on a digital description.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 , further comprising:

real-time comparing of dose distribution reconstructed from the ultrasound signal generated by the charged particle beam associated with treatment planning.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 , further comprising:

real-time mapping of a reconstructed area of a dose delivery at a patient specific computerized tomography image used for acquiring with a cone-beam computerized tomography before a treatment fraction.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 , further comprising developing a radioacoustic image of the charged particle beam comprises using ionizing radiation-induced acoustic computed tomography.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 5 , wherein performing ionizing radiation-induced acoustic computed tomography using the charged particle beam comprises using a therapeutic pencil proton beam.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 , further comprising developing a radioacoustic image of the charged particle beam by:

applying the charged particle beam to the tumor;

deriving a pressure wave from the tumor;

filtering the pressure wave, wherein the filtering is performed by a filter and the filter is a three dimensional filter back-projection algorithm; and

reconstructing the radioacoustic image from the filtered pressure wave.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7 , wherein applying the charged particle beam to the tumor comprises applying the charged particle beam to a water phantom.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7 , wherein developing the radioacoustic image of the charged particle beam comprises developing the radioacoustic image of the charged particle beam using ionizing radiation-induced acoustic computed tomography.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 9 , further comprising comparing the developed radioacoustic image to the Bragg peak and assessing linearity based upon the comparison.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 1 , wherein developing the radioacoustic image of the charged particle beam is based, at least in part, on a Monte Carlo simulation.

12. A system of performing proton treatment therapy, the system comprising:

means for developing a radioacoustic image of a proton beam incident on an in vivo target;

means for locating a distal edge of the proton beam from the radioacoustic image; and

means for performing the proton treatment therapy based upon the located distal edge of the proton beam.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein developing the radioacoustic image of the proton beam comprises using a Monte Carlo simulation to develop the radioacoustic image.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein developing the radioacoustic image of the proton beam comprises using an ionizing radiation-induced acoustic computed tomography scanner.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the in vivo target is a tumor.

16. The system of claim 12 , further comprising:

a dosimetric scanner configured to apply the proton beam to a sample;

means for calculating a pressure wave based, at least in part, on the sample; and

means for reconstructing the image from the calculated pressure wave.

17. A system for verification of accuracy of delivery of a charged proton beam to a target, the system comprising:

a dosimetric scanner configured to receive projections from a plurality of projection angles;

means for reconstructing an ultrasound signal based, at least in part on the projections; and

means for scoring a dose a value of falloff of the ultrasound signal corresponding to a distal edge of the charged particle beam associated with a Bragg peak.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein reconstructing the ultrasound signal includes developing a radioacoustic image of the proton beam using a Monte Carlo simulation.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein developing the radioacoustic image of the proton beam comprises using ionizing radiation-induced acoustic computed tomography.

20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the target is a tumor in a human body.