title: Development of an easy-to-handle range measurement tool using a plastic scintillator for proton beam therapy.
abstract: Proton beam therapy can concentrate the dose on a tumour. In order to offer high-precision proton beam therapy to the patient, it is important to confirm the range every day. At the National Cancer Center Hospital East (NCC), the range measurement tool consists of a water phantom and an ionization chamber. These large and heavy tools take a long time to set up. Therefore, we developed a simple and easy-to-handle range measurement tool for proton beam therapy. This tool consists of a plastic scintillator block and a CCD camera. We recorded visible scintillation light generated by proton irradiation on the scintillator, and could measure the range from the shape of light distribution by using a computer with automatic analysis software installed. We carried out proton irradiation experiments with this tool to examine its performance as a tool of daily range measurements. The precision of the range measurement is within 0.3 mm (sd). The tool can measure possible short-term range variation with 1 s sampling time during the time interval of a typical treatment in a few minutes. We conclude that this tool can measure the range with sufficient resolution in a short time, and is useful for range control in a clinical setting.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Medical Science, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 228-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Teiji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nishio
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maruyama
mesh_terms: D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D010969:Plastics / Q000528:radiation effects*; D061766:Proton Therapy; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012588:Scintillation Counting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics