Nuclear reaction measurements of 95 MeV/u 12C interactions on PMMA for hadrontherapy

The ion dose deposition in tissues is characterized by a favorable depth dose profile (i.e. Bragg peak) and a small lateral spread. In order to keep these benefits of ions in cancer treatments, a very high accuracy is required on the dose deposition (±3%). For given target stoichiometry and geometry, the largest uncertainty on the physical dose deposition is due to the ion nuclear fragmentation. We have performed an experiment at GANIL with a 95 MeV/u 12C beam on thick tissue equivalent PMMA targets (thicknesses: 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mm). The main goals of this experiment are to provide experimental fragmentation data for benchmarking the physical models used for treatment planning. Production rates, energy and angular distributions of charged fragments have been measured. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of this experiment.