Proton beam therapy (PBT) offers several advantages over conventional radiotherapy for cancer treatment, particularly for those tumours close to sensitive structures. Through precise control of the proton beam position and energy, healthy tissue can be spared more comprehensively whilst still delivering the necessary dose to the tumour, resulting in better outcomes for patients, particularly children. Comprehensive Quality Assurance (QA) is necessary at every clinical PBT centre: measurements of the proton pencil beam position, size, dose and range in water are required each morning before treatment to ensure that treatment is delivered safely.

A pair of quality assurance detectors for proton beam therapy are under development within the UCL High Energy Physics group. These detectors are intended to improve both the speed and accuracy of the QA process, allowing QA to be carried out more quickly and comprehensively.

This talk will give an overview of cancer treatment with PBT and discuss the detector development programme within HEP to develop clinical prototypes for PBT QA.