A precise relative stopping power map of the patient is crucial for accurate particle therapy. Charged particle imaging determines the stopping power either tomographically - particle computed tomography (pCT) - or by combining prior knowledge from particle radiography (pRad) and x-ray CT. Generally, multiple Coulomb scattering limits the spatial resolution. Compared to protons, heavier particles scatter less due to their lower charge/mass ratio. A theoretical framework to predict the most likely trajectory of particles in matter was developed for light ions up to carbon and was found to be the most accurate for helium comparing for fixed initial velocity. To further investigate the potential of helium in particle imaging, helium computed tomography (HeCT) and radiography (HeRad) were studied at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Centre (HIT) using a prototype pCT detector system registering individual particles, originally developed by the U.S. pCT collaboration. Several phantoms were investigated: modules of the Catphan QA phantom for analysis of spatial resolution and achievable stopping power accuracy, a paediatric head phantom (CIRS) and a custommade phantom comprised of animal meat enclosed in a 2 % agarose mixture representing human tissue. The pCT images were reconstructed applying the CARP iterative reconstruction algorithm. The MTF_10% was investigated using a sharp edge gradient technique. HeRad provides a spatial resolution above that of protons (MTF10_10%=6.07 lp/cm for HeRad versus MTF_10%=3.35 lp/cm for proton radiography). For HeCT, the spatial resolution was limited by the number of projections acquired (90 projections for a full scan). The RSP accuracy for all inserts of the Catphan CTP404 module was found to be 2.5% or better and is subject to further optimisation. In conclusion, helium imaging appears to offer higher spatial resolution compared to proton imaging. In future studies, the advantage of helium imaging compared to other imaging modalities in clinical applications will be further explored.

Single-event ion imaging enables the direct reconstruction of the relative stopping power (RSP) information required for ion-beam therapy. Helium ions were recently hypothesized to be the optimal species for such technique. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of secondary fragments on the image quality of helium CT (HeCT) and to assess the performance of a prototype proton CT (pCT) scanner when operated with helium beams in Monte Carlo simulations and experiment. Experiments were conducted installing the U.S. pCT consortium prototype scanner at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT). Simulations were performed with the scanner using the TOPAS toolkit. HeCT images were reconstructed for a cylindrical water phantom, the CTP404 (sensitometry), and the CTP528 (line-pair) [Formula: see text] ^® modules. To identify and remove individual events caused by fragmentation, the multistage energy detector of the scanner was adapted to function as a [Formula: see text] telescope. The use of the developed filter eliminated the otherwise arising ring artifacts in the HeCT reconstructed images. For the HeCT reconstructed images of a water phantom, the maximum RSP error was improved by almost a factor 8 with respect to unfiltered images in the simulation and a factor 10 in the experiment. Similarly, for the CTP404 module, the mean RSP accuracy improved by a factor 6 in both the simulation and the experiment when the filter was applied (mean relative error 0.40% in simulation, 0.45% in experiment). In the evaluation of the spatial resolution through the CTP528 module, the main effect of the filter was noise reduction. For both simulated and experimental images the spatial resolution was  ∼4 lp cm^-1. In conclusion, the novel filter developed for secondary fragments proved to be effective in improving the visual quality and RSP accuracy of the reconstructed images. With the filter, the pCT scanner is capable of accurate HeCT imaging.