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Bentefour, E

Publications and source records attributed to Bentefour, E.

8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-218: Validation of An In-Vivo Proton Range Verification Method for Reducing the Risk of Permanent Alopecia in the Treatment of Pediatric Medulloblastoma

Purpose: The clinical commissioning of a workflow for pre-treatment range verification/adjustment for the head treatment of pediatric medulloblastoma patients, including dose monitoring during treatment. Methods: An array of Si-diodes (DIODES Incorporated) is placed on the patient skin on the opposite side to the beam entrance. A “scout” SOBP beam, with a longer beam range to cover the diodes in its plateau, is delivered; the measured signal is analyzed and the extracted water equivalent path lengths (WEPL) are compared to the expected values, revealing if a range correction is needed. Diodes stay in place during treatment to measure dose. The workflow was tested in solid water and head phantoms and validated against independent WEPL measurements. Both measured WEPL and skin doses were compared to computed values from the TPS (XiO); a Markus chamber was used for reference dose measurements. Results: The WEPL accuracy of the method was verified by comparing it with the dose extinction method. It resulted, for both solid water and head phantom, in the sub-millimeter range, with a deviation less than 1% to the value extracted from the TPS. The accuracy of dose measurements in the fall-off part of the dose profile was validated against the Markus chamber. The entire range verification workflow was successfully tested for the mock-treatment of head phantom with the standard delivery of 90 cGy per field per fraction. The WEPL measurement revealed no need for range correction. The dose measurements agreed to better than 4% with the prescription dose. The robustness of the method and workflow, including detector array, hardware set and software functions, was successfully stress-tested with multiple repetitions. Conclusion: The performance of the in-vivo range verification system and related workflow meet the clinical requirements in terms of the needed WEPL accuracy for pretreatment range verification with acceptable dose to the patient.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

MO-FG-CAMPUS-JeP1-02: Proton Range Verification of Scanned Pencil Beams Using Prompt Gamma Imaging

Purpose: Prompt gammas are emitted along the proton beam path and have an emission profile correlated with the depth dose profile. In this study, the accuracy of in-vivo proton range verification using a 1-D prompt gamma camera is assessed. Methods: The 1-D camera is comprised of a tungsten slit collimator positioned in front of a linear array of LYSO scintillating crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers. The imaged gamma profiles of individual pencil beam spots and energy layers were analyzed by determining the relative shifts from the expected gamma profiles based on analytic prediction or reference measurements. The range retrieval precision was evaluated by reproducibility measurements and by irradiation through a heterogeneous phantom composed of materials with known stopping power ratios. The camera was evaluated at clinical doses in pencil beam scanning mode on a head-and-neck phantom (HN). Two scenarios were studied: 5 mm systematic range error; and setup error of 10 mm transverse to the proton beam. Results: The camera range retrieval precision was 2 mm at clinical doses. For the heterogeneous phantom and HN phantom studies, the discrepancies between the analytic model and measurements were less than 2 mm for both spot and iso-energy layer analysis. For the simulated 5 mm range error, the retrieved shifts were 4.3±2.0 mm. For the 10 mm setup error, large shifts (> 4 mm) were observed for some spots due to differences in the irradiated and expected beam path from the measurements without setup error. Conclusion: Our studies demonstrated that in-vivo proton range verification is feasible using a 1D prompt gamma camera with a 2 mm range retrieval precision. Pencil beam spot under or over ranging can be detected via comparison between measured and expected profiles.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

WE-EF-303-10: Single- Detector Proton Radiography as a Portal Imaging Equivalent for Proton Therapy

Purpose: In proton therapy, patient alignment is of critical importance due to the sensitivity of the proton range to tissue heterogeneities. Traditionally proton radiography is used for verification of the water-equivalent path length (WEPL), which dictates the depth protons reach. In this work we propose its use for alignment. Additionally, many new proton centers have cone-beam computed tomography in place of beamline X-ray imaging and so proton radiography offers a unique patient alignment verification similar to portal imaging in photon therapy. Method: Proton radiographs of a CIRS head phantom were acquired using the Beam Imaging System (BIS) (IBA, Louvain-la-Neuve) in a horizontal beamline. A scattered beam was produced using a small, dedicated, range modulator (RM) wheel fabricated out of aluminum. The RM wheel was rotated slowly (20 sec/rev) using a stepper motor to compensate for the frame rate of the BIS (120 ms). Dose rate functions (DRFs) over two RM wheel rotations were acquired. Calibration was made with known thicknesses of homogeneous solid water. For each pixel the time width, skewness and kurtosis of the DRFs were computed. The time width was used to compute the object WEPL. In the heterogeneous phantom, the excess skewness and excess kurtosis (i.e. difference from homogeneous cases) were computed and assessed for suitability for patient set up. Results: The technique allowed for the simultaneous production of images that can be used for WEPL verification, showing few internal details, and excess skewness and kurtosis images that can be used for soft tissue alignment. These latter images highlight areas where range mixing has occurred, correlating with phantom heterogeneities. Conclusion: The excess skewness and kurtosis images contain details that are not visible in the WET images. These images, unique to the time-resolved proton radiographic method, could be used for patient set up according to soft tissues.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

TH-C-BRD-05: Reducing Proton Beam Range Uncertainty with Patient-Specific CT HU to RSP Calibrations Based On Single-Detector Proton Radiography

Purpose: Beam range uncertainty in proton treatment comes primarily from converting the patient's X-ray CT (xCT) dataset to relative stopping power (RSP). Current practices use a single curve for this conversion, produced by a stoichiometric calibration based on tissue composition data for average, healthy, adult humans, but not for the individual in question. Proton radiographs produce water-equivalent path length (WEPL) maps, dependent on the RSP of tissues within the specific patient. This work investigates the use of such WEPL maps to optimize patient-specific calibration curves for reducing beam range uncertainty. Methods: The optimization procedure works on the principle of minimizing the difference between the known WEPL map, obtained from a proton radiograph, and a digitally-reconstructed WEPL map (DRWM) through an RSP dataset, by altering the calibration curve that is used to convert the xCT into an RSP dataset. DRWMs were produced with Plastimatch, an in-house developed software, and an optimization procedure was implemented in Matlab. Tests were made on a range of systems including simulated datasets with computed WEPL maps and phantoms (anthropomorphic and real biological tissue) with WEPL maps measured by single detector proton radiography. Results: For the simulated datasets, the optimizer showed excellent results. It was able to either completely eradicate or significantly reduce the root-mean-square-error (RMSE) in the WEPL for the homogeneous phantoms (to zero for individual materials or from 1.5% to 0.2% for the simultaneous optimization of multiple materials). For the heterogeneous phantom the RMSE was reduced from 1.9% to 0.3%. Conclusion: An optimization procedure has been designed to produce patient-specific calibration curves. Test results on a range of systems with different complexities and sizes have been promising for accurate beam range control in patients. This project was funded equally by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK) and Ion Beam Applications (Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium)

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-435: Development and Commissioning of a Complete System for In-Vivo Dosimetry and Range Verification in Proton Therapy

Purpose: In-vivo dose and beam range verification in proton therapy could play significant roles in proton treatment validation and improvements. Invivo beam range verification, in particular, could enable new treatment techniques one of which, for example, could be the use of anterior fields for prostate treatment instead of opposed lateral fields as in current practice. We have developed and commissioned an integrated system with hardware, software and workflow protocols, to provide a complete solution, simultaneously for both in-vivo dosimetry and range verification for proton therapy. Methods: The system uses a matrix of diodes, up to 12 in total, but separable into three groups for flexibility in application. A special amplifier was developed to capture extremely small signals from very low proton beam current. The software was developed within iMagX, a general platform for image processing in radiation therapy applications. The range determination exploits the inherent relationship between the internal range modulation clock of the proton therapy system and the radiological depth at the point of measurement. The commissioning of the system, for in-vivo dosimetry and for range verification was separately conducted using anthropomorphic phantom. EBT films and TLDs were used for dose comparisons and range scan of the beam distal fall-off was used as ground truth for range verification. Results: For in-vivo dose measurement, the results were in agreement with TLD and EBT films and were within 3% from treatment planning calculations. For range verification, a precision of 0.5mm is achieved in homogeneous phantoms, and a precision of 2mm for anthropomorphic pelvic phantom, except at points with significant range mixing. Conclusion: We completed the commissioning of our system for in-vivo dosimetry and range verification in proton therapy. The results suggest that the system is ready for clinical trials on patient.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Planning the Future of U.S. Particle Physics (Snowmass 2013): Chapter 8: Instrumentation Frontier

These reports present the results of the 2013 Community Summer Study of the APS Division of Particles and Fields ("Snowmass 2013") on the future program of particle physics in the U.S. Chapter 8, on the Instrumentation Frontier, discusses the instrumentation needs of future experiments in the Energy, Intensity, and Cosmic Frontiers, promising new technologies for particle physics research, and issues of gathering resources for long-term research in this area.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Plasma Panel Based Radiation Detectors

The plasma panel sensor (PPS) is a gaseous micropattern radiation detector under current development. It has many operational and fabrication principles common to plasma display panels (PDPs). It comprises a dense matrix of small, gas plasma discharge cells within a hermetically sealed panel. As in PDPs, it uses non-reactive, intrinsically radiation-hard materials such as glass substrates, refractory metal electrodes, and mostly inert gas mixtures. We are developing these devices primarily as thin, low-mass detectors with gas gaps from a few hundred microns to a few millimeters. The PPS is a high gain, inherently digital device with the potential for fast response times, fine position resolution (< 50 m RMS) and low cost. In this paper we report here on prototype PPS experimental results in detecting betas, protons and cosmic muons, and we extrapolate on the PPS potential for applications including detection of alphas, heavy-ions at low to medium energy, thermal neutrons and X-rays.

Friedman, Dr. Peter S.↗