The prospect of carbon fiber implants in radiotherapy

Ni Xin‐Ye,Tang Xiao‐Bin,Chen Da,Geng Chang‐Ran

doi:10.1120/jacmp.v13i4.3821

Ni Xin‐Ye, Tang Xiao‐Bin + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1120/jacmp.v13i4.3821

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Abstract

Because of their superior characteristics, carbonaceous materials, which are still at their early stage of development, have garnered significant interest. Because of their low atomic number, carbonaceous orthopedic implants possess radiation properties similar to biological tissues and, therefore, they are more suitable to patients in need of radiotherapy. The effects of stainless steel, titanium, and carbon plates on radiation dose distributions were investigated in this work using Monte Carlo simulations and TLD measurements for 6 MV photon beams. It is found that carbon plates will neither increase the incident surface dose, nor lead to the decrease of exit surface dose (the effect of a second build‐up). Carbon fiber orthopedic implants have a good prospect for radiotherapy patients because they have minimal perturbation effects on the radiotherapy dose distribution.PACS number: 87.55.K‐,87.55.Gh, 87.55.ne

Highlights

Traditional orthopedic implant materials are usually stainless steel or titanium whose atomic numbers are larger than those of normal tissues in bodies. These metal implants significantly differ from human normal tissue in density, and will perturb the radiation dose distribution in the body.[1]. In contrast, carbonaceous materials have low atomic numbers, good biocompatibility, chemical stability, good mechanical properties, and modulus of elasticity similar to human bones.[2,3,4,5] The availability of carbon implants will solve the problem of dose perturbation for traditional metal implants
Monte Carlo simulation results For a 10 cm × 10 cm photon field, the doses at the interface immediately above the implants increased by 20.1%, 16.7%, and 1.2% for the stainless steel implant, the titanium implant, and the carbon implant, respectively, compared to that in the water phantom in absence of the implants (Fig. 3)
The doses at the interface immediately below the implant decreased by 9.0%, 6.9%, and -2.2% for the stainless steel implant, the titanium implant, and the carbon implant, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Traditional orthopedic implant materials are usually stainless steel or titanium whose atomic numbers are larger than those of normal tissues in bodies. These metal implants significantly differ from human normal tissue in density, and will perturb the radiation dose distribution in the body.[1] In contrast, carbonaceous materials have low atomic numbers, good biocompatibility, chemical stability, good mechanical properties, and modulus of elasticity similar to human bones.[2,3,4,5] The availability of carbon implants will solve the problem of dose perturbation for traditional metal implants This is good news for those cancer patients who may receive radiotherapy treatments after implanting orthopedic implants.[6]. The Monte Carlo method is the most accurate method to calculate radiation dose distributions in the body[11,12] that cannot be measured using currently available radiation detectors

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Results

Conclusion