Dosimetric response of a glass dosimeter in proton beams: LET-dependence and correction factor

Dosimetric Characteristics of Radiophotoluminescent Glass Dosimeters for Proton Beams

Purpose

The purpose of the study was to investigate the dosimetric characteristics of radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeters (RGDs) for pencil beam scanning proton therapy. The RGD's end-to-end testing of intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) plans was also evaluated.

Materials and Methods

The dosimetric characteristics of the GD-302M type glass dosimeter were studied in terms of uniformity, short-term and long-term reproducibility, stability of the magazine position readout, dose linearity in the range from 0.2 to 20 Gy, energy response in 70-220 MeV, and fading effect. The reference conditions of the spot scanning beam from the Varian ProBeam Compact system were operation at 160 MeV, a 2 cm water-equivalent depth in a solid water phantom, a 10 cm × 10 cm field size at the isocenter, and 2 Gy dose delivery. End-to-end testing of IMPT plans for the head, abdomen, and pelvis was verified using the Alderson Rando phantom. The overall uncertainty analysis was confirmed in this study.

Results

The relative response of RGDs for the uniformity test was within 0.95-1.05. The percentages of the coefficients of variation for short-term and long-term reproducibility were 1.16% and 1.50%, respectively. The dose ACE glass dosimetry reader FGD-1000 showed a stable magazine position readout. The dose was found to be linear with R2 = 0.9988. The energy response relative to 160 MeV was approximately within 4.0%. The fading effect was within 2.4%. For the end-to-end test, the difference between the treatment plan and RGD measurement was within 1.0%. The overall uncertainty of the RGD measurement for the proton beam was 4.6%, which covered all energy ranges in this study.

Conclusion

The experimental study indicates that the RGDs have the potential to be used in the dosimetry of therapeutic proton beams, including end-to-end dosimetry.

Evaluation of radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter response for therapeutic spot scanning proton beam: suggestion of linear energy transfer-based correction

A radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeter (RGD) is used for a postal audit of a photon beam because of its various excellent characteristics. However, it has not been used for scanning proton beams because its response characteristics have not been verified. In this study, the response of RGD to scanning protons was investigated to develop a dosimetry protocol using the linear energy transfer (LET)‐based correction factor. The responses of RGD to four maximum‐range‐energy‐pattern proton beams were verified by comparing it with ionization chamber (IC) dosimetry. The LET at each measurement depth was calculated via Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The LET correction factor (kLETRGD) was the ratio between the uncorrected RGD dose (DrawRGD) and the IC dose at each measurement depth. kLETRGD can be represented as a function of LET using the following equation: kLETRGDLET=‐0.035LET+1.090. DrawRGD showed a linear under‐response with increasing LET, and the maximum dose difference between the IC dose and DrawRGD was 15.2% at an LET of 6.07 keV/μm. The LET‐based correction dose (DLETRGD) conformed within 3.6% of the IC dose. The mean dose difference (±SD) of DrawRGD and DLETRGD was –2.5 ± 6.9% and 0.0 ± 1.6%, respectively. To achieve accurate dose verification for scanning proton beams using RGD, we derived a linear regression equation based on LET. The results show that with appropriate LET correction, RGD can be used for dose verification of scanning proton beams.