Secondary radiation measurements for particle therapy applications: nuclear fragmentation produced by $^4$He ion beams in a PMMA target

Nowadays there is a growing interest in Particle Therapy treatments exploiting light ion beams against tumors due to their enhanced Relative Biological Effectiveness and high space selectivity. In particular promising results are obtained by the use of ^4e projectiles. Unlike the treatments performed using protons, the beam ions can undergo a fragmentation process when interacting with the atomic nuclei in the patient body. In this paper the...