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Proton therapy (PT) is an advancing radiotherapy modality increasingly integrated into clinical settings, transitioning from research facilities to hospital environments. A critical aspect of the commissioning of a proton pencil beam scanning delivery system is the acquisition of experimental beam data for accurate beam modelling within the treatment planning system (TPS). These guidelines describe in detail the acquisition of proton pencil beam modelling data. First, it outlines the intrinsic characteristics of a proton pencil beam-energy distribution, angular-spatial distribution and particle number. Then, it lists the input data typically requested by TPSs. Finally, it describes in detail the set of experimental measurements recommended for the acquisition of proton pencil beam modelling data-integrated depth-dose curves, spot maps in air, and reference dosimetry. The rigorous characterization of these beam parameters is essential for ensuring the safe and precise delivery of proton therapy treatments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

The mean excitation energy, I , is an essential quantity for proton treatment planning. This work investigated the feasibility of extracting the spatial distribution of I by combining two computed tomography (CT) modalities, dual-energy CT and proton CT, which provided the spatial distribution of the relative electron density and the stopping power relative to water, respectively. We provided the analytical derivation of I as well as its uncertainty. Results were validated on simulated X-ray and proton CT images of a digital anthropomorphic phantom. Accuracy was below 15% with a large uncertainty, which demonstrated the potential and limits of the technique., (© 2018 The Authors.)