Dosimetric properties of radiophotoluminescent glass detector in low-energy photon beams.

PURPOSE: A radiophotoluminescent glass rod dosimeter (RGD) has recently become commercially available. It is being increasingly used for dosimetry in radiotherapy to measure the absorbed dose including scattered low-energy photons on the body surface of a patient and for postal dosimetry audit. In this article, the dosimetric properties of the RGD, including energy dependence of the dose response, reproducibly, variation in data obtained by the RGD for each energy, and angular dependence in low-energy photons, are discussed. METHODS: An RGD (GD-301, Asahi Techno Glass Corporation, Shizuoka, Japan) was irradiated with monochromatic low-energy photon beams generated by synchrotron radiation at Photon Factory, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). The size of GD-301 was 1.5 mm in diameter and 8.5 mm in length and the active dose readout volume being 1 mm diameter and 0.6 mm depth located 0.7 mm from the end of the detector. The energy dependence of the dose response and reproducibility and variation were investigated for RGDs irradiated with a plastic holder and those irradiated without the plastic holder. Response of the RGD was obtained by not only conventional single field irradiation but also bilateral irradiation. Angular dependence of the RGD was measured in the range of 0°-90° for 13, 17, 40, and 80 keV photon beams by conventional single field irradiation. RESULTS: The dose responses had a peak at around 40 keV. For the energy range of less than 25 keV, all dose response curves steeply decreased in comparison with the ratio of mass energy absorption coefficient of the RGD to that of air. As for the reproducibility and variation in data obtained by the RGD, the coefficient of variance increased with decrease in photon energy. Furthermore, the variation for bilateral irradiation was less than that for single field irradiation. Regarding angular dependence of the RGD, for energies of 13 and 17 keV, the response decreased with increase in the irradiation angle, and the minimum values were 93.5% and 86%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed the dosimetric properties of the RGD, including the energy dependence of the dose response, reproducibly, variation, and angular dependence in low-energy photons and suggest that the accuracy of the absorbed dose in low-energy photons is affected by the readout method and the distribution of radiophotoluminescence centers in the RGD.

Evaluation of the usefulness of a MOSFET detector in an anthropomorphic phantom for 6-MV photon beam.

In order to evaluate the usefulness of a metal oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET) detector as a in vivo dosimeter, we performed in vivo dosimetry using the MOSFET detector with an anthropomorphic phantom. We used the RANDO phantom as an anthropomorphic phantom, and dose measurements were carried out in the abdominal, thoracic, and head and neck regions for simple square field sizes of 10 x 10, 5 x 5, and 3 x 3 cm(2) with a 6-MV photon beam. The dose measured by the MOSFET detector was verified by the dose calculations of the superposition (SP) algorithm in the XiO radiotherapy treatment-planning system. In most cases, the measured doses agreed with the results of the SP algorithm within +/-3%. Our results demonstrated the utility of the MOSFET detector for in vivo dosimetry even in the presence of clinical tissue inhomogeneities.

Dosimetric verification in inhomogeneous phantom geometries for the XiO radiotherapy treatment planning system with 6-MV photon beams.

We have developed a practical dose verification method for radiotherapy treatment planning systems by using only a Farmer ionization chamber in inhomogeneous phantoms. In particular, we compared experimental dose verifications of multi-layer phantom geometries and laterally inhomogeneous phantom geometries for homogeneous and inhomogenous dose calculations by using the fast-Fourier-transform convolution, fast-superposition, and superposition in the XiO radiotherapy treatment-planning system. We applied the dose verification method to three kernel-based algorithms in various phantom geometries with water-, lung- and bone-equivalent media of different field sizes. These calculations were then compared with experimental measurements by use of the Farmer ionization chamber. The fast-Fourier-transform convolution algorithm overestimated the dose by about 8% in the lung phantom geometry. The superposition algorithm and the fast-superposition algorithm were both accurate to better than 2% when compared to the measurements even for complex geometries. Our dose verification method was able to clarify the differences and equivalences of the three kernel-based algorithms and measurements with use only of commonly available apparatus. This will be generally useful in commissioning of inhomogeneity-correction algorithms in the clinical practice of treatment planning.