阅读说明：本技术 一种用于bnct的便于更换中子引出孔道形状和尺寸的准直器 (Collimator used for BNCT and convenient for changing shape and size of neutron extraction pore channel ) 是由 梁天骄 陈俊阳 童剑飞 胡志良 傅世年 张锐强 于 2021-01-30 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及BNCT技术领域,尤指一种用于BNCT的便于更换中子引出孔道形状和尺寸的准直器；所述的准直器结构主要包括两个构件,其中一个为固定构件,连接安装在束流整形装置的后端,另一个为可更换构件,与固定构件形成配合式的可拆卸安装；本发明准直器构型的目的是根据不同尺寸的肿瘤情况,采用可变式准直器构型以最大化治疗效果,该可变式构型可在不同尺寸肿瘤情况下保证中子通量均较大且尽量约束束流的横向扩散,使得治疗效果的最大化；本发明只需要对可更换构件进行非标设计和生产制造,就能与固定构件形成一个完整的准直器结构,可替换性强,降低生产成本和更换工艺,同时优化肿瘤治疗效果。(The invention relates to the technical field of BNCT, in particular to a collimator which is used for BNCT and is convenient for replacing the shape and the size of a neutron extraction duct; the collimator structure mainly comprises two components, wherein one component is a fixed component and is connected and installed at the rear end of the beam shaping device, and the other component is a replaceable component and is detachably installed in a matched mode with the fixed component; the collimator configuration aims at adopting a variable collimator configuration to maximize the treatment effect according to the tumor conditions of different sizes, and the variable collimator configuration can ensure that the neutron flux is larger and restrain the transverse diffusion of beam current as much as possible under the tumor conditions of different sizes so as to maximize the treatment effect; the invention can form a complete collimator structure with the fixed component only by carrying out non-standard design and production manufacturing on the replaceable component, has strong replaceability, reduces the production cost and the replacement process, and simultaneously optimizes the tumor treatment effect.)

1. A collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of neutron extraction tunnel shape and size, comprising: the collimator mainly comprises two components, wherein one component is a fixed component and is connected and installed at the rear end of the beam shaping device, and the other component is a replaceable component and is detachably installed in a matched mode with the fixed component; the whole fixed component is cylindrical, the middle part of the fixed component is provided with an adaptive structure with a through hole, the whole appearance of the replaceable component can be matched, assembled and connected with the adaptive structure in the middle part of the fixed component, the middle part of the replaceable component is provided with a through conical hole with large inner end aperture and small outer end aperture, and the conical hole can adopt different opening sizes and cone angle sizes; the hole diameter and the shape of the through hole of the fixed component adapting structure are adapted to the shape and the hole diameter of the replaceable component, the replaceable component is embedded and installed in the adapting structure of the fixed component, the end face of the installation shaft end of the replaceable component is tightly attached to the end face of the upper surface of the adapting structure of the fixed component, detachable connection installation is formed, and the assembled collimator is integrally in a cylindrical shape with a variable central opening shape and size.

2. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of a neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 1, wherein: the fixed component and the replaceable component are doped with⁶Li/¹⁰Polyethylene material or enrichment of B⁶Li of Li₂CO₃And (5) manufacturing the material.

3. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of a neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 1, wherein: the adapter structure of the fixing component is integrally concave, the replaceable component is integrally convex in appearance, and the concave thickness and shape of the fixing component are matched with the convex thickness and shape of the replaceable component in a matched mode, so that the replaceable component can be embedded and installed in the adapter structure of the fixing component to form the collimator, and the integral thickness of a collimation hole of the collimator is guaranteed to be kept unchanged.

4. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 3, wherein: the adaptive structure is in a through stepped counter bore shape, the overall appearance of the replaceable component is in a stepped shaft shape, and the mounting shaft end of the stepped shaft can be matched with the stepped counter bore for mounting and connection.

5. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of a neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 3 or 4, wherein: the countersunk hole diameter of the stepped counter bore of the fixed component adaptive structure is matched with the shaft diameter of the stepped shaft mounting shaft end of the replaceable component, the mounting shaft end of the replaceable component is embedded and mounted at the countersunk position of the stepped shaft mounting shaft end of the fixed component, the end face of the mounting shaft end of the replaceable component is attached to the countersunk end face of the stepped shaft end of the fixed component, detachable connection is formed, and the assembled collimator is integrally cylindrical with a through hole in the middle.

6. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of a neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 1, wherein: the shape and the size of an opening of the outer end of the conical hole close to the tumor of the patient belong to nonstandard design, and the opening is designed according to requirements to be suitable for the size of the tumor.

7. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of a neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 1 or 6, wherein: the opening size of the conical hole and the change trend of the cone angle are that the larger the opening size is, the smaller the cone angle is; the specific numerical value is calculated and given according to the biological effect and the neutron transport.

8. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 1 or 6, wherein: the size of the opening at the outer end of the tapered hole of the replacement component is changed within the range of 20-100 mm.

9. The collimator for BNCT facilitating replacement of neutron extraction aperture shape and size according to claim 8, wherein: when the size of the outer opening of the conical hole is 20mm, the corresponding cone angle is about 50 °, when the size of the outer opening is 100mm, the corresponding cone angle is about 10 °, and the range of the cone angle is 10 ° to 50 °.

10. The method of operating a BNCT collimator for facilitating the replacement of neutron extraction aperture shape and size of claim 1, wherein: the working method comprises the following steps:

firstly, obtaining the configuration of a neutron extraction pore channel structure of a collimator according to the tumor sizes of different tumor patients and theoretical calculation results of neutron transport and a biological model, mainly obtaining the optimal numerical values of the opening size and the opening cone angle of a conical hole of a replaceable component, and then carrying out non-standard manufacturing;

then, the fixed component is installed at the rear end of the beam shaping device, the replaceable component and the fixed component are installed in a matched and connected mode to form an integrated collimator, the neutron beam is moderated to a super-heat energy area in the beam shaping device through a moderator, the collimator is installed at the rear end of the beam shaping device in a connected mode to collimate and limit the neutron beam, and the super-heat neutron rays emitted through the collimator structure irradiate tumors of a patient and are used for treating patients suffering from cancer; when different tumors are targeted, only the appropriate replaceable component needs to be manufactured again, and the replaceable component and the fixed component are assembled into a collimator structure with the size of the opening and the size of the cone angle.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of BNCT, in particular to a collimator which can conveniently realize the change of aperture and cone angle and is used for BNCT and is convenient for configuration change.

Background

The Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) technology is characterized in that a special compound containing Boron is pre-injected into a tumor patient, the compound has strong affinity with cancer cells, and is rapidly gathered in the cancer cells after entering a human body, and the distribution in other tissues is less; then the hyperthermic neutron rays of BNCT irradiate the tumor of the patient and have strong nuclear reaction with boron entering cancer cells. The nuclear reaction can release strong alpha rays, the range of the rays is short, and the rays only have the length of one cancer cell, so that the cancer cells can be damaged from the inside, the influence on surrounding normal cells is reduced to the maximum extent, and the effect of treating the cancer is achieved.

A neutron generating and transporting device in boron neutron capture treatment mainly generates high-energy neutrons through proton targeting, the high-energy neutrons are moderated to a super-thermal energy area through a moderator, and a collimator is connected to the rear end of the moderator to collimate and limit the neutron beam flow. Generally, the size of the opening of the collimator determines the beam spot size of the neutron beam, and the shape of the opening (cone angle size) determines the lateral diffusion of the neutron flux and the beam current in the irradiated human body. In accordance with the biological model-based radioactive dose calculation, collimator apertures of different opening sizes and shapes are required to maximize their therapeutic effect for different tumor cases.

In the current boron neutron capture treatment beam shaping device, the adopted collimator configurations are mainly divided into two types, the first type is a circular truncated cone-shaped hole formed in the center of a cylindrical structure and is a fixed configuration, namely the same collimation hole is adopted for any patient, the collimation hole configuration is difficult to adapt to the actual tumor condition of the patient, if the tumor size is larger than the opening size, the tumor killing effect is poor, if the tumor size is smaller than the opening size, the healthy tissue is damaged, and therefore the opening size of the collimation hole is not adaptive to the tumor size, and the treatment effect is difficult to maximize; the second is to connect the beam limiting structure at the rear end of the above configuration, if the required opening is smaller, the length of the beam limiting structure is longer, so the configuration can restrain the size of the beam spot, but the smaller opening size, the neutron flux is smaller, and the calculation of the biological model shows that the excessively small neutron flux affects the treatment effect.

At present, the two collimators lack sufficient consideration on the transverse diffusion of beam current in a human body, neglect the influence of neutron flux on the treatment effect, and have no pertinence or weak pertinence when treating different tumors, so that the maximization of the treatment effect is difficult to realize.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above problems, the present invention is directed to a collimator for a BNCT beam shaper, which is convenient to adjust the configuration of a collimating hole, so as to perform a targeted therapy on different tumors, and more particularly, to a collimator for BNCT, which is convenient to change the shape and size of a neutron extraction hole.

The technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows: a collimator convenient for changing the shape and size of a neutron extraction duct for BNCT mainly comprises two components, wherein one component is a fixed component and is connected and installed at the rear end of a beam shaping device, and the other component is a replaceable component and forms a matched detachable installation with the fixed component; the whole fixed component is cylindrical, the middle part of the fixed component is provided with an adaptive structure with a through hole, the whole appearance of the replaceable component can be matched, assembled and connected with the adaptive structure in the middle part of the fixed component, the middle part of the replaceable component is provided with a through conical hole with large inner end aperture and small outer end aperture, and the conical hole can adopt different opening sizes and cone angle sizes; the hole diameter and the shape of the through hole of the fixed component adaptive structure are matched with the appearance and the tapered hole diameter of the replaceable component, the replaceable component is embedded and installed in the adaptive structure of the fixed component, the end face of the installation shaft end of the replaceable component is tightly attached to the end face of the upper surface of the adaptive structure of the fixed component, detachable connection installation is formed, and the assembled collimator is integrally in a cylinder shape with a variable central opening.

The fixed component and the replaceable component are both made of 6 Li-doped polyethylene.

The adapter structure of the fixed component is integrally concave, the replaceable component is integrally convex in appearance, the concave thickness of the fixed component is matched with the convex thickness of the replaceable component in a matched mode, the replaceable component can be embedded and installed in the adapter structure of the fixed component to form the collimator, and the integral thickness of a collimation hole of the collimator is guaranteed to be kept unchanged.

The adaptive structure is in a through stepped counter bore shape, the overall appearance of the replaceable component is in a stepped shaft shape, and the mounting shaft end of the stepped shaft can be matched with the stepped counter bore for mounting and connection.

The countersunk hole diameter of the stepped counter bore of the fixed component adaptive structure is matched with the shaft diameter of the stepped shaft mounting shaft end of the replaceable component, the mounting shaft end of the replaceable component is embedded and mounted at the countersunk position of the stepped shaft mounting shaft end of the fixed component, the end face of the mounting shaft end of the replaceable component is attached to the countersunk end face of the stepped shaft end of the fixed component, detachable connection is formed, and the assembled collimator is integrally cylindrical with a through hole in the middle.

The shape and the size of an opening at the end, close to the tumor, of the outside of the conical hole belong to non-standard designs, and the opening is designed according to requirements to be suitable for the size of the tumor.

The opening size of the conical hole and the change trend of the cone angle are that the larger the opening size is, the smaller the cone angle is; the specific numerical value is given according to biological and neutron transport calculation.

The size of the outer opening of the tapered hole of the replacement member varies in the range of 20-100 mm.

When the size of the outer opening of the conical hole is 20mm, the corresponding cone angle is about 50 °, and when the size of the outer opening is 100mm, the corresponding cone angle is about 10 °, so that the cone angle varies from 10 ° to 50 °.

The working method of the collimator used for BNCT, which is convenient for changing the shape and the size of the neutron extraction aperture channel, comprises the following steps:

firstly, obtaining the configuration of a collimator structure according to the sizes of tumors of different tumor patients and theoretical calculation results of neutron transport and a biological model, mainly obtaining the optimal numerical values of the opening size and the opening cone angle of a tapered hole of a replaceable component, and then carrying out non-standard manufacturing;

then, the fixed component is installed at the rear end of the beam shaping device, then the replaceable component and the fixed component are installed in a matched and connected mode to form an integrated collimator, the neutron beam is moderated to a super-thermal energy area in the beam shaping device through a moderator, the collimator is installed at the rear end of the beam shaping device in a connected mode to collimate and limit the neutron beam, and the super-thermal neutron rays emitted through the collimator structure irradiate tumors of a patient and are used for treating patients suffering from cancer; when different tumors are targeted, only the appropriate replaceable component needs to be manufactured again, and the replaceable component and the fixed component are assembled into a collimator structure with the size of the opening and the size of the cone angle.

The invention has the beneficial effects that: firstly, the aim of the design of the collimation hole structure is to adopt a variable collimation hole structure to maximize the treatment effect according to different tumor conditions, and the variable structure can ensure that neutron flux is larger and restrain the transverse diffusion of beam current as much as possible under different tumor conditions, so that the treatment effect is maximized; in addition, the collimator can be regarded as a non-standard product convenient to produce and manufacture, the collimator is decomposed into the fixed component and the replaceable component, and the collimator and the fixed component can form a complete collimator only by carrying out non-standard design and production and manufacture on the replaceable component, so that the replaceability is strong, the production cost and the replacement process are reduced, and the treatment effect is optimized.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the working principle of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an assembly diagram of the fixing member and the replaceable member according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a replaceable component according to a first embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural view of the fixing member of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is an assembly diagram of the fixing member and the replaceable member according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a replaceable component according to a second embodiment of the invention.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which: 1-reflector, 11-moderator, 2-collimator, 21-fixation means, 210-adaptation means, 22-exchangeable means, 220-tapered hole.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention is made with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific examples:

as shown in fig. 1-6, a collimator 2 for BNCT convenient for changing the shape and size of neutron extraction aperture, said collimator 2 mainly includes two components, one of which is a fixed component 21, and is connected to the rear end of the reflector 1 of the beam shaper, i.e. the rear end of the moderator 11, the rear end of the thermal neutron and gamma ray filter, and the other is a replaceable component 22, and forms a matched detachable installation with the fixed component 21, and both the fixed component 21 and the replaceable component 22 are made of polyethylene material doped with 6 Li; the whole fixed component 21 is cylindrical, the middle part of the fixed component is provided with an adaptive structure 210 with a through hole, the whole shape of the replaceable component 22 can be matched, assembled and connected with the adaptive structure 210 in the middle part of the fixed component 21, the middle part of the replaceable component 22 is provided with a through conical hole 220 with large inner end aperture and small outer end aperture, and the conical hole 220 can adopt different opening sizes and cone angle sizes; the aperture and shape of the through hole of the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21 are adapted to the shape of the replaceable member 22 and the aperture of the tapered hole 220, and the replaceable member 22 is embedded in the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21, so that the end face of the mounting shaft of the replaceable member 22 is closely attached to the end face of the upper surface of the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21, thereby forming a detachable connection installation, and the assembled collimator 2 is in a cylindrical shape with a variable central opening.

The adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21 is concave, the replaceable member 22 is convex, and the concave thickness of the fixing member 21 is adapted to the convex thickness of the replaceable member 22, so that the replaceable member 22 can be embedded in the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21 to form the collimator 2, and the overall thickness of the collimating hole of the collimator 2 is maintained.

The shape and size of the opening of the external part of the tapered hole 220 close to the tumor end of the patient belong to non-standard design, the opening is designed to be suitable for the size of the tumor according to needs, the change trend of the opening size and the taper angle of the tapered hole 220 is that the larger the opening size is, the smaller the taper angle is, the change range of the size of the external opening of the tapered hole 220 of the replacement member is 20-100mm, when the size of the external opening of the tapered hole 220 is 20mm, the corresponding taper angle is about 50 degrees, when the size of the external opening is 100mm, the corresponding taper angle is about 10 degrees, and therefore, the change range of the taper angle is 10 degrees to 50 degrees.

The first embodiment is as follows:

as shown in fig. 1-4, in this embodiment, the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21 is in a through stepped counterbore shape, i.e., a concave shape, the replaceable member 22 is in a stepped shaft shape, i.e., a convex shape, the opening diameter of the tapered hole 220 is 21mm, the opening taper angle at the center thereof is 50 °, and the mounting shaft end of the stepped shaft can be matched and mounted with the stepped counterbore.

A collimator convenient for changing the shape and size of a neutron extraction pore channel for BNCT mainly comprises two components, wherein one component is a fixed component 21 and is connected and installed at the rear end of a reflector 1 of a beam shaping device, the other component is a replaceable component 22 and forms a matched detachable installation with the fixed component 21, and the fixed component 21 and the replaceable component 22 are both made of 6 Li-doped polyethylene materials; the whole fixed component 21 is cylindrical, the middle part of the fixed component is provided with an adaptive structure 210 with a through hole, the whole shape of the replaceable component 22 can be matched, assembled and connected with the adaptive structure 210 in the middle part of the fixed component 21, the middle part of the replaceable component 22 is provided with a through conical hole 220 with large inner end aperture and small outer end aperture, and the conical hole 220 can adopt different opening sizes and cone angle sizes; the aperture and shape of the through hole of the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21 are adapted to the shape of the replaceable member 22 and the aperture of the tapered hole 220, and the replaceable member 22 is embedded in the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21, so that the end face of the mounting shaft of the replaceable member 22 is closely attached to the end face of the upper surface of the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21, thereby forming a detachable connection installation, and the assembled collimator 2 is in a cylindrical shape with a variable central opening.

In this embodiment, the countersunk diameter of the stepped counterbore of the adapting structure 210 of the fixing member 21 is adapted to the axial diameter of the mounting shaft end of the stepped shaft of the replaceable member 22, and the mounting shaft end of the replaceable member 22 is embedded in the countersunk position of the stepped shaft of the fixing member 21, so that the end face of the mounting shaft end of the replaceable member 22 is closely attached to the countersunk end face of the counterbore of the fixing member 21, thereby forming a detachable connection, and the assembled collimator 2 is integrally cylindrical with a through hole in the middle.

In this embodiment, the working method of the collimator for BNCT, which is convenient for changing the shape and size of the neutron extraction opening, includes the following steps:

firstly, according to the sizes of tumors of different tumor patients and theoretical calculation results of neutron transport and biological models, the configuration of a collimator structure is obtained, mainly the optimal numerical values of the opening size and the opening cone angle of the tapered hole 220 of the replaceable component 22 are obtained, and then non-standard manufacturing is carried out;

then, a fixing component 21 is installed at the rear end of a reflector 1 of the beam shaping device, then a replaceable component 22 and the fixing component 21 are installed in a matched and connected mode to form an integrated collimator 2, the neutron beam is moderated to a super-thermal energy area in the reflector 1 of the beam shaping device through a moderator 11, the collimator 2 is installed at the rear end of the moderator 11 in a connected mode to collimate and limit the neutron beam, and the super-thermal neutron rays emitted through the collimator structure irradiate tumors of a patient and are used for treating patients suffering from cancer; when aiming at different tumors, only the appropriate replaceable component 22 needs to be manufactured again, and the collimator 2 structure with replaceable opening size and cone angle size is assembled with the fixed component 21.

Example two:

in this embodiment, the adaptive structure 210 of the fixing member 21 is a through stepped counter bore, i.e. a concave shape, the overall shape of the replaceable member 22 is a stepped shaft, i.e. a convex shape, the opening diameter of the tapered hole 220 is 100mm, the opening cone angle at the center thereof is 10 °, and the mounting shaft end of the stepped shaft can be mounted and connected with the stepped counter bore in a matching manner. As shown in fig. 1 and 4-6, in this embodiment, the construction and connection and operation are identical except that the size and shape of the tapered bore 220 of the interchangeable component 22 is different from the first embodiment, and is not redundant.

The invention is based on the structure of the collimator 2 in the beam shaping device 1 of the existing BNCT based on the theoretical result of the existing biological model, namely the optimization improvement of the aperture and the shape of the collimation hole, the collimator 2 in the invention is formed by decomposing the collimator 2 into two components, one is a fixed component 21 and the other is a replaceable component 22, the two components are detachably connected and installed into the whole collimator 2, the variable or replaceable structure of the aperture and the shape of the collimation hole is realized, the whole thickness of the collimator 2 is ensured to be kept unchanged, the whole shape of the collimator 2 is a cylinder with a central opening, the produced and manufactured material is 6 Li-doped polyethylene, and the material can realize the moderation and the absorption of neutrons; the replaceable component 22 in the invention can be designed and manufactured according to the specific tumor condition, and according to the theoretical result of a biological model of a neutron transport meter, the size of an outer opening of the replaceable component 22 is adapted to the size of the tumor, and the restriction relationship between beam transverse diffusion and neutron flux is fully considered; if the opening size of the collimation hole is small, the cone angle should be large to enhance the neutron flux, and in the case of the large opening size, the cone angle should be small to prevent neutrons from leaking and damaging healthy tissues, so that the design can maximize the treatment effect. The variability of the variable member is reflected in two aspects, namely that the size of the outer opening facing the direction of the tumor patient is variable; secondly, the opening shape is variable, namely the cone angle is variable, and different opening sizes and cone angles are adopted according to different tumor patients.

The present invention can design and use different replaceable members 22 according to different tumor sizes and according to the calculation of treatment plan, wherein one replaceable member 22 is mounted on the fixed member 21 to form the whole collimator 2 for finally treating the patient with cancer; more specifically, the aim of the design of the collimation hole configuration is to adopt a variable collimation hole configuration to maximize the treatment effect according to different tumor conditions, and the variable configuration can ensure that neutron flux is larger under different tumor conditions and restrain the transverse diffusion of beam current as much as possible, so that the treatment effect is maximized; in addition, the invention can be regarded as a non-standard product which is convenient to produce and manufacture, the collimator 2 is decomposed into the fixed component 21 and the replaceable component 22, and only the replaceable component 22 needs to be designed, produced and manufactured in a non-standard way, so that the complete collimator 2 can be formed with the fixed component 21, the replaceability is strong, the production cost and the replacement process are reduced, and meanwhile, the tumor treatment effect is optimized.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the technical scope of the present invention, and those skilled in the art may make modifications and variations within the spirit of the present invention, and all modifications, equivalents and modifications of the above embodiments according to the technical spirit of the present invention are within the scope of the present invention.