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Characteristics of Secondary Electrons from Irradiated Gold Nanoparticle in Radiotherapy

Handbook of Nanoparticles

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Abstract

The effective range, maximum deflection angle, interaction parameters, and energy deposition of secondary electrons emitted from a gold nanoparticle irradiated by photon beams were calculated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Moreover, the low-energy electrons (LEEs) with energy range of 3–20 eV, produced when a gold nanoparticle is irradiated by photon beams, were studied. The author’s group used the Geant4-based computer code was used to simulate and track secondary electrons from a 100 nm diameter gold nanoparticle irradiated at monoenergetic photon beams of 35, 73.3, 660, and 1,200 keV and from 2, 50, and 100 nm diameter gold nanoparticles irradiated at polyenergetic photon beams of 50 kVp, 250 kVp, 1.25 MV, and 6 MV in water. To investigate the LEEs, secondary electrons emitted from a gold nanoparticle with diameter of 100 nm, interacting with photon beams with energies equal to 35, 73.3, and 600 keV, were simulated using the Geant4 code. The phase spaces of the secondary electrons produced by simulations were then used to simulate the LEEs in water using the NOREC Monte Carlo code. All secondary electrons emitted by the gold nanoparticle and all LEEs produced by each secondary electron were tracked in simulations. The author’s group compared the number of secondary electron emitted with and without the gold nanoparticle in water and found that the presence of gold produces more electrons, when irradiated by monoenergetic photon beams with particularly low energy (35 keV). As the photon beam energy was increased from 35 to 1,200 keV, the effective electron range increased from 24.7 to 5,060 μm, but the total number of emitted photoelectric electrons decreased by a factor of 270 per interacting photon. The maximum electron deflection angle relative to the incident beam decreased from 83.1° to 39.2°, and the stopping power of the emitted electron decreased from 1.42 to 0.24 keV/μm. For polyenergetic photon beams with 2, 50, and 100 nm diameter nanoparticles, the author’s group found that both irradiations of the 50 and 250 kVp photon beam caused significantly greater deposited energy surrounding the gold nanoparticle (three orders of magnitude) than the MV beams (approximately five times). The author’s group also found that a larger portion of deposited energy resided within a larger nanoparticle under the photon irradiation. From the LEE results, the author’s group found that the energy distributions of the LEEs from the gold nanoparticle do not vary significantly between different photon beam energies. In addition, the 660 keV photon beam produced more LEEs traveling to a longer range than photon beams of lower energies (35 and 73.3 keV). This higher energy deposition and longer range LEEs produced by the 660 keV photon beam can enhance the cell kill. These simulated results yield important insights concerning the enhancement of tumor cell killing in gold nanoparticle-enhanced radiotherapy. The aim of this chapter is to show that the irradiation of gold nanoparticles at lower monoenergetic and polyenergetic photon energies in the kV range will be more efficient for cell killing. This conclusion is consistent with published studies.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Michael Leung of the University of Toronto and Sean Fahey of the Ryerson University for their assistances in the Geant4 and NOREC programming and Monte Carlo simulations. The author would also like to acknowledge the SciNet HPC Consortium in the University of Toronto for providing computing support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

    James Chun Lam Chow

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5G 2M9, Canada

    James Chun Lam Chow

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  1. James Chun Lam Chow
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Correspondence to James Chun Lam Chow .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Mahmood Aliofkhazraei

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Chow, J.C. (2015). Characteristics of Secondary Electrons from Irradiated Gold Nanoparticle in Radiotherapy. In: Aliofkhazraei, M. (eds) Handbook of Nanoparticles. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13188-7_10-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13188-7_10-1

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  1. Latest

    Characteristics of Secondary Electrons from Irradiated Gold Nanoparticle in Radiotherapy
    Published:
    29 June 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13188-7_10-2

  2. Original

    Characteristics of Secondary Electrons from Irradiated Gold Nanoparticle in Radiotherapy
    Published:
    25 May 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13188-7_10-1

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