Title:
Characterization and Validation of a Proton Minibeam System and Evaluation of Treatment Planning Systems
Characterization and Validation of a Proton Minibeam System and Evaluation of Treatment Planning Systems
Author(s)
Stanforth, Alexander
Advisor(s)
Wang, C.-K. Chris
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Abstract
Spatially fractionated radiation therapy (SFRT) has been used to deliver radiation therapy since the early 1900s, with renewed interest in the last few decades. Proton SFRT is a recent proposal which is used in limited clinical circumstances. Further research on proton mini- and microbeams have been shown to have an increased therapeutic index when compared to traditional SFRT. Despite the body of research showing its biologic benefits compared to other more traditional methods of radiation therapy, proton minibeam radiation therapy (pMBRT) is not currently used clinically. This work attempts to model a pMBRT minibeam and assess the accuracy of Class-II Monte Carlo algorithms in generating clinical treatment plans. This work characterized a collimated proton minibeam system using TOPAS simulations and experimental measurements. It then used the open-source treatment planning system (TPS), MCSquare, to compare the results of Class-II Monte Carlo methods to more extensive Monte Carlo simulations and measurements. A simple clinical case with an anthropomorphic phantom was used to test MCSquare end-to-end. This work further characterized the secondary neutral particles present in a collimated minibeam system as well as the impact the collimator has on linear energy transfer (LET). Overall, measurements showed high agreement with TOPAS simulations when characterizing the minibeam. The TPS results showed high agreement with TOPAS and measurements, with noted differences due to lack of secondary neutral particle transport. The end-to-end test showed high agreement with a gamma analysis. The secondary neutral particles and LET characterization showed high agreement between measurements and TOPAS simulations and the impact of the collimator on these quantities wasstudied.
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Date Issued
2023-05-16
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Text
Resource Subtype
Dissertation