Dosimetry with micro strip gas chambers

The current technique of cancer radiotherapy makes use of radiation beams directed on the body of the patient to deposit a large amount of energy in the tumour cells. Very positive results have been obtained using photon beams and a significant improvement can be expected with the use of light ion beams. Along these lines, in the framework of the TERA project, we are developing a sampling clorimeter made of tissue-equivalent absorber and Micro Strip Gas Chambers (MSGC). The purpose is to study the energy deposition, fragmentation and track structure of light ions in tissue equivalent material. Preliminary results obtained with a MSGCs telescope in a carbon beam with an energy of 270 MeV/u are presented and compared with Monte-Carlo calculations.