Simulation of proton range monitoring in an anthropomorphic phantom using multi-slat collimators and time-of-flight detection of prompt-gamma quanta
Prompt-gamma (PG) imaging has the potential for monitoring proton therapy in real time. Different approaches are investigated. We focus on developing multi-slat collimators to image PG quanta, aiming at optimizing collimator performance to detect deviations in treatment delivery. We investigated six...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[October 2018]
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| In: |
Physica medica
Year: 2018, Volume: 54, Pages: 1-14 |
| ISSN: | 1724-191X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ejmp.2018.09.001 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2018.09.001 Verlag, Volltext: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1120179718311621 
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| Author Notes: | Patricia Cambraia Lopes, Paulo Crespo, Hugo Simões, Rui Ferreira Marques, Katia Parodi, Dennis R Schaart |
| Summary: | Prompt-gamma (PG) imaging has the potential for monitoring proton therapy in real time. Different approaches are investigated. We focus on developing multi-slat collimators to image PG quanta, aiming at optimizing collimator performance to detect deviations in treatment delivery. We investigated six different multi-slat configurations, which have either optimal (analytical) intrinsic spatial resolution at fixed efficiency, or otherwise; at different distances from the proton pencil-beam axis (15cm-35cm). We used Geant4 to simulate irradiations of the head (energy: 130MeV) and pelvis (200MeV) of an anthropomorphic phantom, with and without physiologic/morphologic or setup changes of clinical dosimetric relevance. The particles escaping the phantom were transported through each of these multi-slat configurations and the gamma counts profiles were recorded at the collimator exit. Median filtering was applied to the registered PG-profiles to mitigate the effects of septa shadowing and statistical fluctuations. Time-of-flight discrimination was used to enhance the signal-to-background ratio, which appeared crucial for 200MeV irradiations. Visual detection of the artificially introduced changes was possible by comparing the PG to the depth-dose profiles. Moreover, 2mm range shifts could be detected in the head irradiation case using a simple linear regression fit to the falloff of the PG-profile. The influence of changes in complex, patient-like dose distributions on the PG-profiles obtained with multi-slat collimation is first studied in this work, which further gives insight on collimator design optimization and highlights its potential and simplicity for detecting proton treatment deviations over a wide range of Bragg peak positions. |
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| Item Description: | Available online 17 September 2018 Gesehen am 09.07.2019 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1724-191X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ejmp.2018.09.001 |