LOA PhD Seminar: Camilla GIACCAGLIA (UPX): Laser-Plasma Accelerated Very High Energy Electrons for Medical Applications

Each year, more than 200,000 cancer patients in France undergo radiotherapy. While effective, this approach is often limited by damage to healthy tissues, leading to side effects that may impact patients’ quality of life. Developing new therapeutic strategies to enhance efficacy while minimizing toxicity remains a major challenge.

 Very High Energy Electrons (VHEE, >50 MeV) have emerged as a promising radiotherapy alternative due to their greater tissue penetration and reduced sensitivity to heterogeneities, making them particularly suitable for deep-seated, complex tumor sites. However, their biological effects remain largely unexplored, primarily due to the absence of dedicated research accelerators with clinically relevant parameters and integrated biological laboratories.

 This study explores the potential of laser-driven VHEE for medical applications. Laser-plasma accelerators offer a compact alternative to conventional machines and their unique ultra-short pulsed dose delivery enables irradiation at very high dose rates, a key factor in inducing time dependent biological effects, as suggested by the extensive literature on the FLASH effect.

We present the production and characterization of a laser-driven VHEE beam and its application to radiobiology experiments. We successfully performed precise and reproducible irradiations on in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models, and observed both dose-rate and temporal effects inherent to laser-pulsed delivery. A direct comparison with 7 MeV electron beams from a conventional accelerator is also presented.