Abstract
One of the greatest challenges in radiation therapy is the ability to deliver a lethal dose of radiation to a tumour while sparing the surrounding normal tissues. In theory, the dose delivered to a tumour during photon-based radiation therapy can be enhanced by loading high atomic number (Z) materials into the tumour, which results in greater photoelectric absorption and hence increased photoelectron fluence within the tumour than in surrounding tissues. The EGSnrcMP Monte Carlo code, together with DOSXYZnrc, a three-dimensional voxel dose calculation module has been used to study the macroscopic dose enhancement factor (MDEF) in a tumour infused with gold nanoparticles at the kilo-voltage energies. We observed that gold nanoparticles infused in a tumour irradiated with kilo-voltage energies has the potential to enhance the tumour dose by a factor ranging from 0.25 to about 5 depending on the mean energy of the beam and the concentration of gold nanoparticles in the tumour. The increase in dose can be attributed to the significant increase in the photoelectron fluence within the tumour loaded with gold particles during the irradiation. Future studies will involve the characterization of the MDEF at megavoltage energies.
Published Version
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