Application of high-resolution radiochromic film dosimetry in verifying a small-field stereotactic radiosurgery plan

A new transmission methodology for quality assurance in radiotherapy based on radiochromic film measurements

Despite individual quality assurance (QA) being recommended for complex techniques in radiotherapy (RT) treatment, the possibility of errors in dose delivery during therapeutic application has been verified. Therefore, it is fundamentally important to conduct in vivo QA during treatment. This work presents an in vivo transmission quality control methodology, using radiochromic film (RCF) coupled to the linear accelerator (linac) accessory holder. This QA methodology compares the dose distribution measured by the film in the linac accessory holder with the dose distribution expected by the treatment planning software. The calculated dose distribution is obtained in the coronal and central plane of a phantom with the same dimensions of the acrylic support used for positioning the film but in a source-to-detector distance (SDD) of 100 cm, as a result of transferring the IMRT plan in question with all the fields positioned with the gantry vertically, that is, perpendicular to the phantom. To validate this procedure, first of all a Monte Carlo simulation using PENELOPE code was done to evaluate the differences between the dose distributions measured by the film in a SDD of 56.8 cm and 100 cm. After that, several simple dose distribution tests were evaluated using the proposed methodology, and finally a study using IMRT treatments was done. In the Monte Carlo simulation, the mean percentage of points approved in the gamma function comparing the dose distribution acquired in the two SDDs were 99.92% ± 0.14%. In the simple dose distribution tests, the mean percentage of points approved in the gamma function were 99.85% ± 0.26% and the mean percentage differences in the normalization point doses were -1.41%. The transmission methodology was approved in 24 of 25 IMRT test irradiations. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the proposed methodology using RCFs can be applied for in vivo QA in RT treatments.

Dose verification of helical tomotherapy intensity modulated radiation therapy planning using 2D-array ion chambers

PURPOSE

To investigate the clinical usage of dose verification of Helical Tomotherapy plans by using 2D-array ion chambers, and to develop an efficient way to validate the dose delivered for the patients during treatments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A pixel-segmented ionisation chamber device, IMRT MatriXX™ and Multicube™ phantom from IBA were used on ten selected Tomotherapy IMRT/IGRT head and neck plans in this study. The combined phantom was set up to measure the dose distribution from coronal and sagittal planes. The setup of phantom was guided for verifying the correction position by pre-treatment Tomotherapy MVCT images. After the irradiation, the measured dose distributions of coronal and sagittal planes were compared with those from calculation by the planning system for cross verification. The results were evaluated by the absolute and relative doses as well as Gamma (γ) function. The feasibility of the different measuring methods was studied for this rotational treatment technique.

RESULTS

The dose distributions measured by the MatriXX 2D array were in good agreements with plans calculated by Tomotherapy planning system. The discrepancy between the measured dose and predicted dose in the selected points was within ±3%. In the comparison of the pixel-segmented ionisation chamber versus treatment planning system using the 3 mm/3% γ-function criteria, the mean passing rates of 2 mm dose grid with γ-parameter ≤1 were 97.37% and 96.91%, in two orthogonal planes (coronal and sagittal directions), respectively.

CONCLUSION

MatriXX with Multicube is a new system created for rotational delivery quality assurance (QA) and found to be reliable to measure both absolute dose and relative dose distributions, simultaneously. It achieves the goal of an efficient and accurate dosimetry validation method of the helical delivery pattern for the Helical Tomotherapy IMRT planning.

Use of new radiochromic devices for peripheral dose measurement: potential in-vivo dosimetry application

The authors have studied the feasibility of using three new high-sensitivity radiochromic devices in measuring the doses to peripheral points outside the primary megavoltage photon beams. The three devices were GAFCHROMIC® EBT film, prototype Low Dose (LD) Film, and prototype LD Card. The authors performed point dosimetry using these three devices in water-equivalent solid phantoms at x = 3,5,8,10, and 15 cm from the edge of 6 MV and 15 MV photon beams of 10x10 cm(2), and at depths of 0, 0.5 cm, and depth of maximum dose. A full sheet of EBT film was exposed with 5000 MU. The prototype LD film pieces were 1.5x2 cm(2) in size. Some LD films were provided in the form of a card in 1.8x5 cm(2) holding an active film in 1.8x2 cm(2). These are referred to as "LD dosimeter cards". The small LD films and cards were exposed with 500 MU. For each scanned film, a 6 mm circular area centered at the measurement point was sampled and the mean pixel value was obtained. The calibration curves were established from the calibration data for each combination of film/cards and densitometer/scanner. The doses at the peripheral points determined from the films were compared with those obtained using ion chamber at respective locations in a water phantom and general agreements were found. It is feasible to accurately measure peripheral doses of megavoltage photon beams using the new high-sensitivity radiochromic devices. This near real-time and inexpensive method can be applied in a clinical setting for dose measurements to critical organs and sensitive patient implant devices.

High-resolution measurements of small field beams using polymer gels

Small field sizes are increasingly becoming important in radiotherapy particularly since the introduction of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) techniques. It is normally a challenging task to reliably measure the delivered dose and to determine its distribution in a medium for such small fields using conventional-type dosimeters such as gas ionisation chambers. Recently, attempts have been made to use films, but they are not tissue equivalent, they measure the dose only in two dimensions and they are not as responsive to radiations. In the present work, polyacrylamide gel (PAG) dosimeters are employed to measure the dose and its distribution in three dimensions for very small field sizes, such as those typically used in stereotactic radiosurgery. Field sizes of 6 x 6 and 18 x 18 mm in width are investigated. The results show an agreement with radiochromic film and ionisation diode measurements, with some variation in measured doses near the edge of the field, where the gel data decreases more rapidly than the other methods.