Abstract

With advances in therapeutic instruments and techniques, three-dimensional dose delivery has been widely used in radiotherapy. The verification of dose distribution in a small field becomes critical because of the obvious dose gradient within the field. The study investigates the dose distributions of various field sizes by using NIPAM polymer gel dosimeter. The dosimeter consists of 5% gelatin, 5% monomers, 3% cross linkers, and 5 mM THPC. After irradiation, a 24 to 96 hour delay was applied, and the gel dosimeters were read by a cone beam optical computed tomography (optical CT) scanner. The dose distributions measured by the NIPAM gel dosimeter were compared to the outputs of the treatment planning system using gamma evaluation. For the criteria of 3%/3 mm, the pass rates for 5 × 5, 3 × 3, 2 × 2, 1 × 1, and 0.5 × 0.5 cm2 were as high as 91.7%, 90.7%, 88.2%, 74.8%, and 37.3%, respectively. For the criteria of 5%/5 mm, the gamma pass rates of the 5 × 5, 3 × 3, and 2 × 2 cm2 fields were over 99%. The NIPAM gel dosimeter provides high chemical stability. With cone-beam optical CT readouts, the NIPAM polymer gel dosimeter has potential for clinical dose verification of small-field irradiation.

Highlights

  • At present, there are three major ways to treat malignant tumors: surgical operation, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy

  • Modern radiotherapy techniques can maximize the radiation dose to tumors and minimize the one applied to normal tissue by using small-field segments of a multileaf collimator

  • The results showed that the NIPAM gel dosimeter had a high linear dose response ranging from 2–15 Gy [3], and can be read out by various scanning tools [4,5]

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Summary

Introduction

There are three major ways to treat malignant tumors: surgical operation, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Modern radiotherapy techniques can maximize the radiation dose to tumors and minimize the one applied to normal tissue by using small-field segments of a multileaf collimator. Radiometric tools play a crucial role in accurately verifying the radiation dose and irradiation scope. Gel dosimeters provide three-dimensional (3D) dose information, which can be used as a validation of treatment planning for patients.

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