0000000000181049
AUTHOR
Heiko Karle
Quantification of Radiation Biomarkers in Leukocytes of Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Different Modalities of 3D-CRT or IMRT
The goal of this study was to determine whether the quantification of radiation biomarkers in peripheral leukocytes of 111 breast cancer patients after adjuvant treatment with different modalities of three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) or intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) revealed any difference in the patients' radiation burden by out-of-field doses and an associated risk of second malignancies. Whole-breast radiation therapy was performed by 3D-CRT using either a hard wedge (n = 32) or a virtual wedge (n = 49) at dose rates of 3 and 6 Gy per min each. Patients receiving additional radiotherapy to lymph nodes were treated by 3D-CRT (n = 21) or IMRT (n = 9). DN…
Verification of a commercial implementation of the Macro-Monte-Carlo electron dose calculation algorithm using the virtual accelerator approach.
Abstract In this work, the accuracy of the implementation of the Macro Monte Carlo electron dose calculation algorithm into the radiation therapy treatment planning system Eclipse is evaluated. This implementation – called eMC – uses a particle source based on the Rotterdam Initial Phase-Space model. A three-dimensional comparison of eMC calculated dose to dose distributions resulting from full treatment head simulations with the Monte Carlo code package EGSnrc is performed using the ‘virtual accelerator’ approach. Calculated dose distributions are compared for a homogeneous tissue equivalent phantom and a water phantom with air and bone inhomogeneities. The performance of the eMC algorithm…
Influence of a Commercial Lead Apron on Patient Skin Dose Delivered During Oral and Maxillofacial Examinations under Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT)
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a commercial lead apron on patient skin dose delivered during maxillofacial CBCT in five critical regions by means of solid-state-dosimetry. Five anatomical regions (thyroid gland, left and right breast, gonads, back of the phantom torso) in an adult female anthropomorphic phantom were selected for dose measurement by means of the highly sensitive solid-state dosimeter QUART didoSVM. Ten repeated single exposures were assessed for each patient body region for a total of five commercial CBCT devices with and without a lead apron present. Shielded and non-shielded exposures were compared under the paired Wilcoxon test, with absolute an…
Investigation of correction factors for non-reference conditions in ion chamber photon dosimetry with Monte-Carlo simulations.
Current dosimetry protocols require geometrical reference conditions for the determination of absorbed dose in external radiotherapy. Whenever these geometrical conditions cannot be maintained the application of additional corrections becomes necessary, in principle. The current DIN6800-2 protocol includes a corresponding factor k(NR), but numerical values are lacking and no definite information about the magnitude of this correction is available yet. This study presents Monte-Carlo based calculations within the 6 MV-X photon field of a linear accelerator for a common used ion chamber (PTW31010) employing the EGSnrc code system. The linear accelerator model was matched to measurements, show…
Radiation dose distribution in functional heart regions from tangential breast cancer radiotherapy
Abstract Background and purpose To analyze the distribution of individually-determined radiation dose to the heart and its functional sub-structures after radiotherapy in breast cancer patients treated in Germany during 1998–2008. Material and methods We obtained electronic treatment planning records for 769 female breast cancer patients treated with megavoltage tangential field radiotherapy. All dose distributions were re-calculated using Eclipse with the anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA) for photon fields, and the electron Monte Carlo algorithm for electron boost fields. Based on individual dose volume histograms for the complete heart and several functional sub-structures, we estima…