WE-AB-BRB-09: Real Time In Vivo Scintillating Fiber Array Detector for Medical LINACS

Abstract

Purpose: An in vivo transmission scintillation fiber detector was developed to monitor patient treatment in real time for the enhancement of patient safety and treatment accuracy. The detector system is capable of monitoring each pulse from a medical LINAC during treatment to determine the dose delivered as treatment progresses. Methods: The detector system consists of 60 parallel scintillating fibers coupled to fast data processing optoelectronics that can monitor the beam fluence in real time. Each 2.5mm2 square fiber is aligned with an MLC leaf pair and is long enough to capture a 40cm field. The fibers are embedded within a water equivalent polymer substrate that is secured in the LINAC accessory tray. The fibers are coupled to high speed photosensors and front end amplifiers that filter noise and pass each pulse to a high speed analog-to-digital converter. The system components are capable of detecting pulse repetition times shorter than what is delivered by a medical LINAC to ensure true real time data acquisition. Results: The system was able to capture and record the signal from each linac pulse and display the information in real time with no pulse pile up. It was found that the fiber array attenuates 2.65% of the beam which can easily be compensated for in treatment planning. The fibers responded linearly with dose, are independent of clinical beam energies, and are independent of dose rate. Calibration of the system was performed as a function of beam energy, beam size, dose rate, and monitor units to optimize beam fluence error detection. Conclusion: The detector system presented provides true real time in vivo beam monitoring to enhance patient safety and treatment delivery accuracy. Furthermore, the detector can be used for current patient specific QA.