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Chen, S

Publications and source records attributed to Chen, S.

32 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-268: Differences in Treatment Plan Quality and Delivery Between Two Commercial Treatment Planning Systems for Volumetric Arc-Based Radiation Therapy

Purpose: To clinically evaluate the differences in volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatment plan and delivery between two commercial treatment planning systems. Methods: Two commercial VMAT treatment planning systems with different VMAT optimization algorithms and delivery approaches were evaluated. This study included 16 clinical VMAT plans performed with the first system: 2 spine, 4 head and neck (HN), 2 brain, 4 pancreas, and 4 pelvis plans. These 16 plans were then re-optimized with the same number of arcs using the second treatment planning system. Planning goals were invariant between the two systems. Gantry speed, dose rate modulation, MLC modulation, plan quality, number of monitor units (MUs), VMAT quality assurance (QA) results, and treatment delivery time were compared between the 2 systems. VMAT QA results were performed using Mapcheck2 and analyzed with gamma analysis (3mm/3% and 2mm/2%). Results: Similar plan quality was achieved with each VMAT optimization algorithm, and the difference in delivery time was minimal. Algorithm 1 achieved planning goals by highly modulating the MLC (total distance traveled by leaves (TL) = 193 cm average over control points per plan), while maintaining a relatively constant dose rate (dose-rate change <100 MU/min). Algorithm 2 involved less MLC modulation (TL = 143 cm per plan), but greater dose-rate modulation (range = 0-600 MU/min). The average number of MUs was 20% less for algorithm 2 (ratio of MUs for algorithms 2 and 1 ranged from 0.5-1). VMAT QA results were similar for all disease sites except HN plans. For HN plans, the average gamma passing rates were 88.5% (2mm/2%) and 96.9% (3mm/3%) for algorithm 1 and 97.9% (2mm/2%) and 99.6% (3mm/3%) for algorithm 2. Conclusion: Both VMAT optimization algorithms achieved comparable plan quality; however, fewer MUs were needed and QA results were more robust for Algorithm 2, which more highly modulated dose rate.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

SU-E-T-540: MCNPX Simulation of Proton Dose Distributions in a Water Phantom

Purpose: In this study, fluence and energy deposition of proton and proton by-products and dose distributions were simulated. Lateral dose distributions were also been discussed to understand the difference between Monte Carlo simulations and pencil beam algorithm. Methods: MCNPX codes were used to build a water phantom by using “repeated structures” technique and the doses and fluences in each cell was recorded by mesh tally. This study includes, proton equilibrium and proton disequilibrium case. For the proton equilibrium case, the doses difference between proton and proton by-products were studied. A 160 MeV proton pencil beam was perpendicularly incident into a 40 × 40 × 50 cm{sup 3} water phantom and the scoring volume was 20 × 20 × 0.2 cm{sup 3}. Energy deposition and fluence were calculated from MCNPX with (1) proton only; and (2) proton and secondary particles. For the proton disequilibrium case, the dose distribution variation using different multiple Coulomb scattering were studied. A 70 MeV proton pencil beam was perpendicularly incident into a 40 × 40 × 10 cm{sup 3} water phantom and two scoring voxel sizes of 0.1 × 0.1 × 0.05 cm{sup 3} and 0.01 × 0.01 × 0.05 cm{sup 3} were used for the depth dose distribution, and 0.01 × 0.01 × 0.05 cm{sup 3} for the lateral profile distribution simulations. Results: In the water phantom, proton fluence and dose in depths beyond the Bragg peak were slightly perturbed by the choice of the simulated particle types. The dose from secondary particles was about three orders smaller, but its simulation consumed significant computing time. The depth dose distributions and lateral dose distributions of 70 MeV proton pencil beam obtained from MCNPX, GEANT4, and the pencil beam algorithm showed the significant deviations, probably caused by multiple Coulomb scattering. Conclusion: Multiple Coulomb scattering is critical when there is in proton disequilibrium.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

TU-EF-204-04: Feasibility Study of a Novel Stationary Spectral CT Scanner

Purpose: To evaluate a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector module and to develop a proof-of-concept bench-top system to examine the concept and feasibility of a stationary spectral scanner that would consist of a CZT detector ring and a distributed source for rotationless imaging. Methods: The bench-top system employs a double-rotation set-up with two concentric but independent rotating stages, one for turning the object at sparse angles to mimic the imaging from a sequentially activated source distributed on a ring, while the other for translating the detector module to simulate a projection arc along a virtual detector ring. A source of 30-degree fan is used in the set-up, and the ring is designed to be 85cm in diameter in order to provide a 22cm field-of-view that is large enough for an average human head. The CZT detector module has 16×16 0.5mm pixels and eight global energy thresholds, and is attached to an experimental data acquisition board from the same vendor (Nova R&D). Its pixel gain is first calibrated using radioisotope Tc-99m to align the photo-peaks. Count rate performance is assessed using the X-ray source. Air and offset corrections are done prior to each CT scan. A 10cm acrylic phantom with 5 different inserts is imaged at 100kVp, 2mA, with an effective exposure window of 150ms per projection. Reconstruction is done using a total variation-type iterative method. Results: The detector module exhibited large gain variations among pixels. Average count rate was over 1Mcps per pixel. Parallax effect was observed along the arcs but was corrected. Reconstructed images from two energy bins demonstrated good contrast, spatial resolution and image uniformity, with little artifacts. Conclusion: The CZT detector tested is suitable for imaging relatively small objects. A stationary spectral CT appears feasible should we have enough buttable modules and a distributed source. This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China through grants 11YQ040082 and 2012BAI13B04.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

WE-D-9A-01: A Novel Mesh-Based Deformable Surface-Contour Registration

Purpose: Initial guess is vital for 3D-2D deformable image registration (DIR) while dealing with large deformations for adaptive radiation therapy. A fast procedure has been developed to deform body surface to match 2D body contour on projections. This surface-contour DIR will provide an initial deformation for further complete 3D DIR or image reconstruction. Methods: Both planning CT images and come-beam CT (CBCT) projections are preprocessed to create 0–1 binary mask. Then the body surface and CBCT projection body contours are extracted by Canny edge detector. A finite element modeling system was developed to automatically generate adaptive meshes based on the image surface. After that, the projections of the CT surface voxels are computed and compared with corresponding 2D projection contours from CBCT scans. As a result, the displacement vector field (DVF) on mesh vertices around the surface was optimized iteratively until the shortest Euclidean distance between the pixels on the projections of the deformed CT surface and the corresponding CBCT projection contour is minimized. With the help of the tetrahedral meshes, we can smoothly diffuse the deformation from the surface into the interior of the volume. Finally, the deformed CT images are obtained by the optimal DVF applied on the original planning CT images. Results: The accuracy of the surface-contour registration is evaluated by 3D normalized cross correlation increased from 0.9176 to 0.9957 (sphere-ellipsoid phantom) and from 0.7627 to 0.7919 (H and N cancer patient data). Under the GPU-based implementation, our surface-contour-guided method on H and N cancer patient data takes 8 seconds/iteration, about 7.5 times faster than direct 3D method (60 seconds/iteration), and it needs fewer optimization iterations (30 iterations vs 50 iterations). Conclusion: The proposed surface-contour DIR method can substantially improve both the accuracy and the speed of reconstructing volumetric images, which is helpful for applying in adaptive radiotherapy. This research is supported by CPRIT individual investigator award RP110329.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

WE-D-9A-02: Automated Landmark-Guided CT to Cone-Beam CT Deformable Image Registration

Purpose: The anatomical changes that occur between the simulation CT and daily cone-beam CT (CBCT) are investigated using an automated landmark-guided deformable image registration (LDIR) algorithm with simultaneous intensity correction. LDIR was designed to be accurate in the presence of tissue intensity mismatch and heavy noise contamination. Method: An auto-landmark generation algorithm was used in conjunction with a local small volume (LSV) gradient matching search engine to map corresponding landmarks between the CBCT and planning CT. The LSVs offsets were used to perform an initial deformation, generate landmarks, and correct local intensity mismatch. The landmarks act as stabilizing controlpoints in the Demons objective function. The accuracy of the LDIR algorithm was evaluated on one synthetic case with ground truth and data of ten head and neck cancer patients. The deformation vector field (DVF) accuracy was accessed using a synthetic case. The Root mean square error of the 3D canny edge (RMSECE), mutual information (MI), and feature similarity index metric (FSIM) were used to access the accuracy of LDIR on the patient data. The quality of the corresponding deformed contours was verified by an attending physician. Results: The resulting 90 percentile DVF error for the synthetic case was within 5.63mm for the original demons algorithm, 2.84mm for intensity correction alone, 2.45mm using controlpoints without intensity correction, and 1.48 mm for the LDIR algorithm. For the five patients the mean RMSECE of the original CT, Demons deformed CT, intensity corrected Demons CT, control-point stabilized deformed CT, and LDIR CT was 0.24, 0.26, 0.20, 0.20, and 0.16 respectively. Conclusion: LDIR is accurate in the presence of multimodal intensity mismatch and CBCT noise contamination. Since LDIR is GPU based it can be implemented with minimal additional strain on clinical resources. This project has been supported by a CPRIT individual investigator award RP11032.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-I-97: Smart Auto-Planning Framework in An EMR Environment (SAFEE)

Purpose: Our Radiation Oncology Department uses clinical practice guidelines for patient treatment, including normal tissue sparing and other dosimetric constraints. These practice guidelines were adapted from national guidelines, clinical trials, literature reviews, and practitioner's own experience. Modern treatment planning systems (TPS) have the capability of incorporating these practice guidelines to automatically create radiation therapy treatment plans with little human intervention. We are developing a software infrastructure to integrate clinical practice guidelines and radiation oncology electronic medical record (EMR) system into radiation therapy treatment planning system (TPS) for auto planning. Methods: Our Smart Auto-Planning Framework in an EMR environment (SAFEE) uses a software pipeline framework to integrate practice guidelines,EMR, and TPS together. The SAFEE system starts with retrieving diagnosis information and physician's prescription from the EMR system. After approval of contouring, SAFEE will automatically create plans according to our guidelines. Based on clinical objectives, SAFEE will automatically select treatment delivery techniques (such as, 3DRT/IMRT/VMAT) and optimize plans. When necessary, SAFEE will create multiple treatment plans with different combinations of parameters. SAFEE's pipeline structure makes it very flexible to integrate various techniques, such as, Model-Base Segmentation (MBS) and plan optimization algorithms, e.g., Multi-Criteria Optimization (MCO). In addition, SAFEE uses machine learning, data mining techniques, and an integrated database to create clinical knowledgebase and then answer clinical questions, such as, how to score plan quality or how volume overlap affects physicians' decision in beam and treatment technique selection. Results: In our institution, we use Varian Aria EMR system and RayStation TPS from RaySearch, whose ScriptService API allows control by external programs. These applications are the building blocks of our SAFEE system. Conclusion: SAFEE is a feasible method of integrating clinical information to develop an auto-planning paradigm to improve clinical workflow in cancer patient care.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-J-227: Breathing Pattern Consistency and Reproducibility: Comparative Analysis for Supine and Prone Body Positioning

Purpose: Evaluate and compare the cycle-to-cycle consistency of breathing patterns and their reproducibility over the course of treatment, for supine and prone positioning. Methods: Respiratory traces from 25 patients were recorded for sequential supine/prone 4DCT scans acquired prior to treatment, and during the course of the treatment (weekly or bi-weekly). For each breathing cycle, the average(AVE), end-of-exhale(EoE) and end-of-inhale( EoI) locations were identified using in-house developed software. In addition, the mean values and variations for the above quantities were computed for each breathing trace. F-tests were used to compare the cycle-to-cycle consistency of all pairs of sequential supine and prone scans. Analysis of variances was also performed using population means for AVE, EoE and EoI to quantify differences between the reproducibility of prone and supine respiration traces over the treatment course. Results: Consistency: Cycle-to-cycle variations are less in prone than supine in the pre-treatment and during-treatment scans for AVE, EoE and EoI points, for the majority of patients (differences significant at p<0.05). The few cases where the respiratory pattern had more variability in prone appeared to be random events. Reproducibility: The reproducibility of breathing patterns (supine and prone) improved as treatment progressed, perhaps due to patients becoming more comfortable with the procedure. However, variability in supine position continued to remain significantly larger than in prone (p<0.05), as indicated by the variance analysis of population means for the pretreatment and subsequent during-treatment scans. Conclusions: Prone positioning stabilizes breathing patterns in most subjects investigated in this study. Importantly, a parallel analysis of the same group of patients revealed a tendency towards increasing motion amplitude of tumor targets in prone position regardless of their size or location; thus, the choice for body positioning during radiation therapy will have to consider the clinical relevance of the two opposing trends - breathing consistency and motion amplitude.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-162: Evaluation of Dose Calculation of RayStation Planning System in Heterogeneous Media

Purpose: To investigate the clinical reliability of heterogeneity-based dose algorithm using RayStation treatment planning system v.4.0. Methods: The collapsed cone dose calculations in RayStation (RaySearch, Sweden) were compared with the measurements (ion chamber and EBT2 film) and with an in-house Monte Carlo algorithm. A heterogeneous multi-layer phantom and CT images of 4 lung cancer patients were used here. The phantom, composed of multiple solid water slabs and Styrofoams, was irradiated with 6MV beams perpendicular to the layers. The MLC-defined field sizes were 5×5, 10×10, 15×15 and 20×20cm{sup 2}. The chamber was positioned at center of central solid water layer, and the films were placed at interfaces of solid water and Styrofoam. The RayStation dose and Monte Carlo dose were compared by performing absolute gamma analysis (3mm/3%): 1D gamma for PDD in the phantom and 3D gamma for patient volumes receiving dose above 10% of maximum dose. Results: The point dose differences between RayStation and ion chamber measurement were smaller than 1% for all of the field sizes. Between RayStation and film measurement, 5×5cm2 field had the maximum differences : <4mm for the penumbra and <0.3mm for the field width at all Styrofoam-and-solid-water interfaces. The absolute gamma analysis showed good agreement between RayStation and Monte Carlo. For PDD along beam axis in the phantom, the 1D gamma was 95.4, 98.6, 99.6 and 99.3% for field size 5×5, 10×10, 15×15 and 20×202 respectively. For dose comparison using patient CT images, 3D gamma was > 95% for all the patients. Conclusion: With respect to ion chamber/film measurement and Monte Carlo calculation, the collapsed cone algorithm in RayStation computed reasonable dose in both phantom and patient cases. Heterogeneity-based dose calculation of RayStation is clinically acceptable in heterogeneous media.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-388: Estimating the Radioactivity Inventory of a Cyclotron Based Pencil Beam Proton Therapy Facility

Purpose: Parts of the cyclotron and energy degrader are incidentally activated by protons lost during the acceleration and transport of protons for radiation therapy. An understanding of the radioactive material inventory is needed when regulatory requirements are assessed. Methods: First, the tumor dose and volume is used to determine the required energy deposition. For spot scanning, the tumor length along the beam path determines the number of required energy layers. For each energy layer the energy deposition per proton can be calculated from the residual proton range within the tumor. Assuming a typical layer weighting, an effective energy deposition per proton can then be calculated. The total number of required protons and the number of protons per energy layer can then be calculated. For each energy layer, proton losses in the energy degrader are calculated separately since its transmission efficiency, and hence the amount of protons lost, is energy dependent. The degrader efficiency also determines the number of protons requested from the cyclotron. The cyclotron extraction efficiency allows a calculation of the proton losses within the cyclotron. The saturation activity induced in the cyclotron and the degrader is equal to the production rate R for isotopes whose half-life is shorter that the projected cyclotron life time. R can be calculated from the proton loss rate and published production cross sections. Results: About 1/3 of the saturation activity is produced in the cyclotron and 2/3 in the energy degrader. For a projected case mix and a patient load of 1100 fractions per week at 1.8 Gy per fraction a combined activity of 180 mCi was estimated at saturation. Conclusion: Calculations were used to support to application of a radioactive materials license for the possession of 200 mCi of activity for isotopes with atomic numbers ranging from 1-83.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-541: Bolus Effect of Thermoplastic Masks in IMRT and VMAT Head and Neck Treatments

Purpose: To quantitatively evaluate the bolus effect of thermoplalstic mask on patient skin dose during multi-field IMRT and VMAT treatment. Methods: The clinically approved target contours for five head and neck patients were deformably registered to an anthropomorphic Rando phantom. Two plans: Multifield IMRT plan with 7-9 beams and VMAT plan with 2-4 arcs were created for each patient following same dose constraints. 3mm skin was excluded from PTVs but not constrained during optimization. The prescription dose was 200-220 cGy/fraction. A thermoplastic head and shoulder mask was customized for the Rando phantom. Each plan was delivered to the phantom twice with and without mask. During each delivery, two rectangular strips of EBT3 films (1cm x 6.8cm) were placed across the anterior upper and lower neck near PTVs to measure the surface dose. For consistency films were positioned at same locations for same patient. A total of 8 film strips were obtained for each patient. Film dose was calibrated in the range of 0-400cGy on the day of plan delivery. For dose comparison 3 regions of interests (ROIs) of 1×1 cm{sup 2} were selected at left, right and middle part of each film, resulting in 6 point doses at each plan delivery. Results: The films without mask show relatively uniform dose distribution while those with mask clearly show mesh pattern of mask, usually indicating an increase in skin dose. On average the increase in skin dose over all ROIs with mask was 31.9%(±14.8%) with a range of 11.4%- 58.4%. There is no statistically significant difference (p=0.44) between skin dose increase in VMAT (30.8%±15.3%) and IMRT delivery (33.0%±14.9%). Conclusion: Thermoplastic immobilization masks increase surface dose for HN patient by around 30%. The magnitude is comparable between multi-field IMRT and VMAT. Radiochromic EBT3 film serves as an effective tool to quantify bolus effect.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

SU-E-T-583: Optimizing the MLC Model Parameters for IMRT in the RayStation Treatment Planning System

Purpose: To optimize the MLC model parameters for IMRT in the RayStation v.4.0 planning system and for a Varian C-series Linac with a 120-leaf Millennium MLC. Methods: The RayStation treatment planning system models rounded leaf-end MLC with the following parameters: average transmission, leaf-tip width, tongue-and-groove, and position offset. The position offset was provided by Varian. The leaf-tip width was iteratively evaluated by comparing computed and measured transverse dose profiles of MLC-defined fields at dmax in water. The profile comparison was also used to verify the MLC position offset. The transmission factor and leaf tongue width were derived iteratively by optimizing five clinical patient IMRT QA Results: brain, lung, pancreas, head-and-neck (HN), and prostate. The HN and prostate cases involved splitting fields. Verifications were performed with Mapcheck2 measurements and Monte Carlo calculations. Finally, the MLC model was validated using five test IMRT cases from the AAPM TG119 report. Absolute gamma analyses (3mm/3% and 2mm/2%) were applied. In addition, computed output factors for MLC-defined small fields (2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 6×6cm) of both 6MV and 18MV were compared to those measured by the Radiological Physics Center (RPC). Results: Both 6MV and 18MV models were determined to have the same MLC parameters: 2.5% transmission, tongue-and-groove 0.05cm, and leaftip 0.3cm. IMRT QA analysis for five cases in TG119 resulted in a 100% passing rate with 3mm/3% gamma analysis for 6MV, and >97.5% for 18MV. With 2mm/2% gamma analysis, the passing rate was >94.6% for 6MV and >90.9% for 18MV. The difference between computed output factors in RayStation and RPC measurements was less than 2% for all MLCdefined fields, which meets the RPC's acceptance criterion. Conclusion: The rounded leaf-end MLC model in RayStation 4.0 planning system was verified and IMRT commissioning was clinically acceptable. The IMRT commissioning was well validated using guidance from the AAPMTG119 protocol.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗