MatriXX system in the study of the influence of respiratory motion on target dose distribution

Abstract

Objective To investigate the influence of respiratory motion on target dose distribution in three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy(3DCRT) and intensity modulated radiation therapy(IM-RT). Methods A 2D air vented ionization chamber array MatriXX system,a platform which can mimic the clip motion of lung tumor, and a home-made solid water(RW3) phantom were used to measure the 2D dose distribution of static and moving targets irradiated by 3DCRT and IMRT beams using multiple gantry an-gles. The period of the moving platform was set to 3.5 s and the amplitude was ± 1 cm. Then the differences of dose distribution between the static phantom and moving phantom were compared and analyzed with the MatriXX system software. Results Compared with the static phantom in 3DCRT, the penumbra of dose distribution of the periodic moving phantom along the moving directions was increased by 6-9 mm, the high dose area was shrinked by about 5 ram,and the low dose area was extended by 5 mm,but the area of 50% i-sodose and the dose center area changed very little. When a single segment beam of IMRT was delivered and measured and the maximum dose of measuring plane was normalized to 100% ,the average difference of dose distribution between the static and dynamic phantoms was ±27% (from -56.4% to 56.1%) ;When all of the segment beams of IMRT were dehvered and the integrated dose distribution was measured ,the dose differ-ences were less than ±3% ,and the maximum difference of dose distribution was about ±15% which mainly appeared at the field margin and were similar to 3DCRT. Conclusions The dose distribution of most cen-ter areas of the periodic moving target using multi-fraction 3DCRT/IMRT beams is similar to that of the static target, while the high dose area of the former is shrinked and the low dose area is extended. Key words: Phantom/radiotherapy; Three-dimensional conformal; Intensity modulated; Ioni-zation chambers array; Dose verification