Main description:

This book provides a first comprehensive summary of the basic principles, instrumentation, methods, and clinical applications of three-dimensional dosimetry in modern radiation therapy treatment. The presentation reflects the major growth in the field as a result of the widespread use of more sophisticated radiotherapy approaches such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy and proton therapy, which require new 3D dosimetric techniques to determine very accurately the dose distribution. It is intended as an essential guide for those involved in the design and implementation of new treatment technology and its application in advanced radiation therapy, and will enable these readers to select the most suitable equipment and methods for their application. Chapters include numerical data, examples, and case studies.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION. Introduction and overview. Accuracy requirements for 3D dosimetry in contemporary radiation therapy. INSTRUMENTATION. Detectors for reference dosimetry. Point detectors for determining and verifying 3D dose distributions. Polymer gel dosimetry. Radiochromic 3D detectors. Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID) dosimetry. 2D and semi-3D dosimetry systems. MEASUREMENT AND COMPUTATION. Small field dosimetry in photon beams. Special delivery techniques. 4D dosimetry. Light-ion beam dosimetry. Monte Carlo applications in clinical 3D dosimetry. Quantifying differences in dose distributions. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS. Acceptance testing, commissioning, and QA of linear accelerators. Commissioning and QA of treatment planning systems. Patient specific QA: pre-treatment 3D dose verification. Patient specific QA: in vivo 3D dose verification. Audits using end-to-end tests. Brachytherapy dosimetry in three dimensions. Dose outside the treatment volume in external beam therapy. Imaging dose in radiation therapy. Dose verification of proton and carbon ion beam treatments. EMERGING TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS. Dosimetry of small animal precision irradiators. 3D dosimetry in synchrotron radiation therapy techniques. 3D dosimetry in magnetic fields