Monte Carlo simulations for in-beam PET

Positron emission tomography (PET) is currently the only in situ and non invasive beam monitoring in light ions tumor therapy. The optimization of an in-beam PET scanner requires a deep knowledge of the β+-activity distribution and also of the background consisting of heavy fragments exiting the patient. The capability of the Geant4 toolkit to reproduce available experimental data of carbon ion interactions has been studied in the present work.