Biomedical Applications of Medium Energy Particle Beams at LAMPF

At LAMPF an 800-MeV proton accelerator is used to produce intense beams of secondary protons, pi mesons, and muons which are being employed in several areas of biomedical research. The primary proton beam is used to produce short-lived radioisotopes of clinical interest. Carefully tailored secondary proton beams are used to obtain density reconstructions of samples with a dose much less than that required by x-ray CT scanners. The elemental composition of tissue samples is being determined non-destructively with muonic x-ray analysis. Finally, an extensive program, with physical, biological, and clinical components, is underway to evaluate negative pi mesons for use in cancer radiotherapy. The techniques used in these experiments and recent results are described.