title: Pilot study for compact microbeam radiation therapy using a carbon nanotube field emission micro-CT scanner.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) is defined as the use of parallel, microplanar x-ray beams with an energy spectrum between 50 and 300 keV for cancer treatment and brain radiosurgery. Up until now, the possibilities of MRT have mainly been studied using synchrotron sources due to their high flux (100s Gy/s) and approximately parallel x-ray paths. The authors have proposed a compact x-ray based MRT system capable of delivering MRT dose distributions at a high dose rate. This system would employ carbon nanotube (CNT) field emission technology to create an x-ray source array that surrounds the target of irradiation. Using such a geometry, multiple collimators would shape the irradiation from this array into multiple microbeams that would then overlap or interlace in the target region. This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of attaining a high dose rate and parallel microbeam beams using such a system.
  
  
  METHODS
  The microbeam dose distribution was generated by our CNT micro-CT scanner (100 μm focal spot) and a custom-made microbeam collimator. An alignment assembly was fabricated and attached to the scanner in order to collimate and superimpose beams coming from different gantry positions. The MRT dose distribution was measured using two orthogonal radiochromic films embedded inside a cylindrical phantom. This target was irradiated with microbeams incident from 44 different gantry angles to simulate an array of x-ray sources as in the proposed compact CNT-based MRT system. Finally, phantom translation in a direction perpendicular to the microplanar beams was used to simulate the use of multiple parallel microbeams.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Microbeams delivered from 44 gantry angles were superimposed to form a single microbeam dose distribution in the phantom with a FWHM of 300 μm (calculated value was 290 μm). Also, during the multiple beam simulation, a peak to valley dose ratio of ~10 was found when the phantom translation distance was roughly 4x the beam width. The first prototype CNT-based x-ray tube dedicated to the development of compact MRT technology development was proposed and planned based on the preliminary experimental results presented here and the previous corresponding Monte Carlo simulations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors have demonstrated the feasibility of creating microbeam dose distributions at a high dose rate using a proposed compact MRT system. The flexibility of CNT field emission x-ray sources could possibly bring compact and low cost MRT devices to the larger research community and assist in the translational research of this promising new approach to radiation therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hadsell
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Laurel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burk
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Sha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599.
authors.forename: Otto
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D005373:Film Dosimetry; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D061089:Radiotherapy, Image-Guided / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon