A new type of polymer gel dosimeter, which responds well to absorbed dose even when manufactured in the presence of normal levels of oxygen, was recently described by Fong et al. [Phys. Med. Biol. 46, 3105-3113 (2001)] and referred to by the acronym MAGIC. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using this new type of gel for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) verification. Gel manufacturing was carried out in room atmosphere under normal levels of oxygen. IMRT inverse treatment planning was performed using the Helios software. The gel was irradiated using a linear accelerator equipped with a dynamic multileaf collimator, and intensity modulation was achieved using sliding window technique. The response to absorbed dose was evaluated using magnetic resonance imaging. Measured and calculated dose distributions were compared with regard to in-plane isodoses and dose volume histograms. In addition, the spatial and dosimetric accuracy was evaluated using the gamma formalism. Good agreement between calculated and measured data was obtained. In the isocenter plane, the 70% and 90% isodoses acquired using the different methods are mostly within 2 mm, with up to 3 mm disagreement at isolated points. For the planning target volume (PTV), the calculated mean relative dose was 96.8 +/- 2.5% (1 SD) and the measured relative mean dose was 98.6 +/- 2.2%. Corresponding data for an organ at risk was 34.4 +/- 0.9% and 32.7 +/- 0.7%, respectively. The gamma criterion (3 mm spatial/3% dose deviation) was fulfilled for 94% of the pixels in the target region. Discrepancies were found in hot spots the upper and lower parts of the PTV, where the measured dose was up to 11% higher than calculated. This was attributed to sub optimal scatter kernels used in the treatment planning system dose calculations. Our results indicate great potential for IMRT verification using MAGIC-type polymer gel.

Dose integration properties were investigated for normoxic polymer gels based on methacrylic acid (nMAG) and acrylamide/N, N'-methylenebisacrylamide (nPAG). The effect of sequential irradiation was studied for different fractionation schemes and varying amounts of methacrylic acid for the nMAG gels. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used for read out of the absorbed dose response. The investigated gels exhibited a dependence on the fractionation scheme. The response when the total dose was divided into fractions of 0.5 Gy was compared with the response when the total dose was delivered in a single fraction. The slope of the R2 versus the absorbed dose response decreased when the absorbed dose per fraction was increased. Also, for higher amounts of methacrylic acid in the nMAG system the difference in the response increased. For gels containing 2, 4, 6 and 8% methacrylic acid, the R2 versus the absorbed dose response increased by 35, 37, 63 and 93%, respectively. Furthermore, the effect of the fractionation was larger when a higher total absorbed dose was given. The effect was less pronounced for the investigated nPAG, containing 3% acrylamide and 3% N, N'-methylenebisacrylamide, than for the nMAG systems. Consequently, this study indicates that the nPAG system has preferable beam integration characteristics compared with the nMAG system.

Crister Ceberg (2009) The feasibility of using Pareto fronts for comparison of treatment planning systems and delivery techniques, Acta Oncologica, 48:2, 233-237,

Highlights The geometry of the synthetic CT is comparable to the CT in the H&N region. Synthetic CT in the H&N region provides similar absorbed dose calculation as the CT. Absorbed dose calculations in the dental region could benefit from using synthetic CT.