Out-of-field dose measurements in radiotherapy – An overview of activity of EURADOS Working Group 9: Radiation protection in medicine

Saveta Miljanić (1) , Jean-Marc Bordy (2) , Francesco d'Errico (3) , Roger Harrison (4) , Pawel Olko (5)

1 Rudjer Boskovic Institute [Zagreb]
2 LNHB - Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel
3 University of Pisa - Università di Pisa
4 University of Northumbria at Newcastle [United Kingdom]
5 H. Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics

This review of dosimetry for second cancer risk estimation introduces work carried out by Working Group 9 (WG9: Radiation Protection Dosimetry in Medicine) of the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS). The work concentrates on the measurement of out-of-field doses in water phantoms using a variety of dosimeters to measure photon and neutron doses. These include optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), radiophotoluminescence (RPL) and thermoluminescence (TLD) dosimeters for photon dosimetry (together with ion chambers for reference measurements) and track etch and superheated emulsion detectors for neutron measurements. The motivation of WG 9 was to assess undue, non-target patient doses in radiotherapy and the related risks of second malignancy. Improvements in cancer treatment have increased survival times and thus increased incidence of second cancer may be expected in the future. In addition, increased whole body exposure may result from some developments in radiotherapy. This means that radiotherapy clinics will need to simulate their treatments in order to estimate and minimise doses to healthy tissues and organs. The proposed work is designed to generate a robust dataset of out-of-field dose measurements which can be used for the development and validation of dose algorithms. Highlights: • Photon dosimeters used (TLD, OSL and RPL) are suitable for out-of-field dosimetry. • Superheated emulsions and Track etch PADC detectors were used for neutron dosimetry. • Neutron detectors used are suitable for out-of-field neutron dosimetry. • Peripheral doses for the same PTV can vary by a factor of 4 for various modalities. • Results revealed that the TPS used regularly underestimated out-of-field doses

Keywords: Emission; Luminescence; Luminescence Dosemeters; Photon Emission; Radiation Dtectors; Radiology; Nuclear Medicine; Mockup; Medicine; Measuring Instruments; Tomotherapy; VMAT; IMRT; OSL; Superheated emulsion detectors; Track etch PADC detectors; TLD; RPL; Out-of-field doses in radiotherapy; Radiotherapy; Therapy; Structural Models; Tomography; CT-Guided Radiotherapy; Computerized Tomography; Emulsions; Neutron Detectors; Neutron Dosimetyry; Organs donation; Particle Tracks; Phantoms; Radiation Doses; Radiation Protection; Thermoluminescence; Thermoluminescent Dosemeters; Body; Colloids; Diagnostic Techniques; Dispersions; Dosemeters; Doses; Dosimetry

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Radiochemistry; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Cancer; Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Bioengineering; Nuclear medicine

Saveta Miljanić, Jean-Marc Bordy, Francesco d'Errico, Roger Harrison, Pawel Olko. Out-of-field dose measurements in radiotherapy – An overview of activity of EURADOS Working Group 9: Radiation protection in medicine. Radiation Measurements, 2014, 71, pp.270 - 275. ⟨10.1016/j.radmeas.2014.04.026⟩. ⟨cea-01841833⟩