Simulation and experimental verification of ambient neutron doses in a pencil beam scanning proton therapy room as a function of treatment plan parameters
Van Hoey, Olivier (Institute for Environment, Health and Safety)
Stolarczyk, Liliana (The Skandion Clinic)
Lillhök, Jan (Swedish Radiation Safety Authority)
Eliasson, Linda (Royal Institute of Technology. Department of Physics)
Mojzeszek, Natalia (Polish Academy of Sciences. Institute of Nuclear Physics)
Liszka, Malgorzata (The Skandion Clinic)
Alkhiat, Ali (Karolinska University Hospital. Department of Medical Radiation Physics and Nuclear Medicine)
Mares, Vladimir (Institute of Radiation Medicine)
Trompier, François (Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire)
Trinkl, Sebastian (Federal Office for Radiation Protection)
Martínez-Rovira, Immaculada (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Romero-Expósito, Maite (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Domingo, Carles (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Física)
Ploc, Ondrej (Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Department of Radiation Dosimetry)
Harrison, Roger (University of Newcastle upon Tyne)
Olko, Pawel (Polish Academy of Sciences. Institute of Nuclear Physics)

Fecha:	2022
Resumen:	Out-of-field patient doses in proton therapy are dominated by neutrons. Currently, they are not taken into account by treatment planning systems. There is an increasing need to include out-of-field doses in the dose calculation, especially when treating children, pregnant patients, and patients with implants. In response to this demand, this work presents the first steps towards a tool for the prediction of out-of-field neutron doses in pencil beam scanning proton therapy facilities. As a first step, a general Monte Carlo radiation transport model for simulation of out-of-field neutron doses was set up and successfully verified by comparison of simulated and measured ambient neutron dose equivalent and neutron fluence energy spectra around a solid water phantom irradiated with a variation of different treatment plan parameters. Simulations with the verified model enabled a detailed study of the variation of the neutron ambient dose equivalent with field size, range, modulation width, use of a range shifter, and position inside the treatment room. For future work, it is planned to use this verified model to simulate out-of-field neutron doses inside the phantom and to verify the simulation results by comparison with previous in-phantom measurement campaigns. Eventually, these verified simulations will be used to build a library and a corresponding tool to allow assessment of out-of-field neutron doses at pencil beam scanning proton therapy facilities.
Ayudas:	European Commission 730983 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RYC2018-024043-I
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Proton therapy ; Pencil beam scanned proton therapy ; Neutron doses ; Monte Carlo simulations ; Out-of-field neutron doses in radiation therapy ; Neutron measurements
Publicado en:	Frontiers in Oncology, Vol. 12 (September 2022) , ISSN 2234-943X

DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.903537
PMID: 36158693

22 p, 1.8 MB

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