Synchrotron-generated microbeam radiotherapy holds great promise for future treatment, but the high dose gradients present conventional dosimetry with a challenge. Measuring the important peak-to-valley dose ratio (PVDR) of a microbeam-collimated synchrotron source requires both a dosimeter and an analysis method capable of exceptional spatial resolution. The PVDR is of great interest since it ...

Achieving adequate verification and quality-assurance (QA) for radiosurgery treatment of trigeminal-neuralgia (TGN) is particularly challenging because of the combination of very small fields, very high doses, and complex irradiation geometries (multiple gantry and couch combinations). TGN treatments have extreme requirements for dosimetry tools and QA techniques, to ensure adequate verificatio...

PURPOSE To characterize and explore the efficacy of a novel low-cost, lowfluid, broad-beam optical-CT system for 3D-dosimetry in radiochromic Presage dosimeters. Leading current optical-CT systems incorporate expensive glass-based telecentric lens technology, and a fluid bath with substantial amounts of fluid (which introduces an inconvenience factor) to minimize refraction artifacts. Here we i...

At the Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH) and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) a new MR-linac is being installed and commissioned. Modifications to absorbed dose patterns will occur, because the paths of secondary electrons are deflected by Lorentz forces. In this paper, we describe a methodology to measure the effects of magnetic field on dose distributions, using the PRESAGE® 3D dosimeter and...

PURPOSE To compare gamma calculations from 2D and 3D dosimetry measurements for phantom quality assurance. METHODS An IROC Houston (RPC) head and neck phantom was irradiated with a 9 beam IMRT plan using two inserts: a TLD and film insert and a PRESAGE insert. Both inserts were irradiated 3 times. The film and PRESAGE doses were scaled to the TLD dose and 2D gamma calculations were made in th...

Gamma index pass rates were evaluated for an anthropomorphic phantom using both 2D and 3D calculations. The phantom was irradiated with the traditional dosimetry insert loaded with radiochromic film and TLD, and then with a 3D dosimetry insert. A comparison with the calculated dose distribution showed that both the PRESAGE ® dosimeter and the film and TLD system agreed with the plan to within 5...

Dosimetry of proton beams using 3D imaging of chemical dosimeters is complicated by a variation with proton linear energy transfer (LET) of the dose-response (the so-called 'quenching effect'). Simple theoretical arguments lead to the conclusion that the total absorbed dose from multiple irradiations with different LETs cannot be uniquely determined from post-irradiation imaging measurements on...

Thirty-seven patients undergoing routine investigation for malabsorption were given radio-opaque pellets (ROP) which were compared with polyethylene glycol and chromic oxide as continuous faecal markers. Percentage recovery of all markers showed a wide range. The recovery of all markers was very similar, and radio-opaque pellet-corrected daily faecal fat correlated very closely with PEG-and chr...

We describe a method to directly measure the radial dose and anisotropy functions of brachytherapy sources using polyurethane based dosimeters read out with optical CT. We measured the radial dose and anisotropy functions for a Cs-137 source using a PRESAGE® dosimeter (9.5cm diameter, 9.2cm height) with a 0.35cm channel drilled for source placement. The dosimeter was immersed in water and irrad...