Multiple energy extraction (MEE) is a technology that was recently introduced by Hitachi for its spot-scanning proton treatment system, which allows multiple energies to be delivered in a single synchrotron spill. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how much beam delivery time (BDT) can be reduced with MEE compared with single energy extraction (SEE), in which one energy is delivered per spill.
A recently developed model based on BDT measurements of our synchrotron's delivery performance was used to compute BDT. The total BDT for 2694 beam deliveries in a cohort of 79 patients treated at our institution was computed in both SEE and 9 MEE configurations to determine BDT reduction. The cohort BDT reduction was also calculated for hypothetical accelerators with increased deliverable charge and compared with the results of our current delivery system.
A vendor-provided MEE configuration with 4 energy layers per spill reduced the total BDT on average by 35% (41 seconds) compared with SEE, with up to 65% BDT reduction for individual fields. Adding an MEE layer reduced the total BDT by <1% of SEE BDT. However, improving charge recapture efficiency increased BDT savings by up to 42% of SEE BDT.