TY - JOUR A1 - Hahn, Marc Benjamin A1 - Zutta Villate, Julian Mateo T1 - Radioactive gold nanoparticles for cancer treatment: Size and cluster dependent damage studied by Geant4 Monte-Carlo simulations T2 - Topical Issue: Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale (2018) N2 - Dose enhancement by gold nanoparticles (AuNP) was shown to increase the biological effectiveness of radiation damage in biomolecules and tissue. Most of the current studies focus on external beam therapy on combination with AuNP. Here we present a Monte-Carlo study (Geant4) to characterise radioactive AuNP. Radioactive ¹⁹⁸Au emits beta and gamma rays and is considered for applications with solid tumours. To effectively apply ¹⁹⁸AuNP their energy deposit characteristics have to be determined in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic properties e.g. AuNP diameter, AuNP density, and their clustering behaviour. After each decay process, the energy deposit, inelastic scattering events, kinetic energy spectrum of secondary particles within the AuNP themselves and in a spherical target volume of water up to 1 μm radius were determined. Simulations were performed for AuNP radii ranging from 2.5 nm to 20 nm radius, different cluster sizes and densities. The results show an increase of the energy deposit in the vicinity of the AuNP up to 150 nm. This effect nearly vanishes for distances up to one micron. For the case of AuNP clusters and the same activity, the enhancement of the energy deposit increases with the relative gold mass percentage and therefore can be adjusted by changing AuNP radius or clustering behaviour. PB - Springer CY - Berlin Heidelberg KW - Gold Nanoparticles KW - AuNP KW - Radioactive decay KW - Beta decay KW - DNA KW - DNA damage KW - Radiation damage KW - MCS KW - Monte-Carlo simulation KW - Geant4 KW - Dosimetry KW - Microdosimetry KW - Cancer treatment KW - Radiationtherapy KW - Brachytherapy KW - OH radicals KW - LEE KW - low energy electrons KW - gamma ray KW - beta particle KW - radiolysis KW - clustered nanoparticles KW - NP KW - Simulation KW - particle scattering KW - Geant4-DNA KW - Energy deposit PY - 2019 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/47952 AN - OPUS4-47952 SN - 1434-6060 SN - 1434-6079 VL - 73 IS - 5 SP - 95, 1 EP - 7 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany