[Determination of organ doses and effective doses in radiooncology].
OBJECTIVE
With an increasing chance of success in radiooncology, it is necessary to estimate the risk from radiation scatter to areas outside the target volume. The cancer risk from a radiation treatment can be estimated from the organ doses, allowing a somewhat limited effective dose to be estimated and compared.


METHODS
The doses of the radiation-sensitive organs outside the target volume can be estimated with the aid of the PC program PERIDOSE developed by van der Giessen. The effective doses are determined according to the concept of ICRP, whereby the target volume and the associated organs related to it are not taken into consideration.


RESULTS
Organ doses outside the target volume are generally < 1% of the dose in the target volume. In some cases, however, they can be as high as 3%. The effective doses during radiotherapy are between 60 and 900 mSv, depending upon the specific target volume, the applied treatment technique, and the given dose in the ICRU point.


CONCLUSIONS
For the estimation of the radiation risk, organ doses in radiooncology can be calculated with the aid of the PC program PERIDOSE. While evaluating the radiation risk after ICRP, for the calculation of the effective dose, the advanced age of many patients has to be considered to prevent that, e.g., the high gonad doses do not overestimate the effective dose.
Roth
Jakob
J
Radiologische Physik, Radio-Onkologie, Universitätsspital, 4031, Basel, Schweiz. jroth@uhbs.ch
Martinez
Aurélien Emmanuel
AE
D001822:Body Burden; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009928:Organ Specificity; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000379:methods*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000379:methods*; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D012984:Software