Purpose:
A novel scatter imaging modality is developed and its feasibility for image‐guided radiation therapy (IGRT) during stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for lung cancer patients is assessed using analytic and Monte Carlo models as well as experimental testing.
Methods:
During treatment, incident radiation interacts and scatters from within the patient. The presented methodology forms an image of patient anatomy from the scattered radiation for real‐time localization of the treatment target. A radiographic flat panel‐based pinhole camera provides spatial information regarding the origin of detected scattered radiation. An analytical model is developed, which provides a mathematical formalism for describing the scatter imaging system. Experimental scatter images are acquired by irradiating an object using a Varian TrueBeam accelerator. The differentiation between tissue types is investigated by imaging simple objects of known compositions (water, lung, and cortical bone equivalent). A lung tumor phantom, simulating materials and geometry encountered during lung SBRT treatments, is fabricated and imaged to investigate image quality for various quantities of delivered radiation. Monte Carlo N‐Particle (MCNP) code is used for validation and testing by simulating scatter image formation using the experimental pinhole camera setup.
Results:
Analytical calculations, MCNP simulations, and experimental results when imaging the water, lung, and cortical bone equivalent objects show close agreement, thus validating the proposed models and demonstrating that scatter imaging differentiates these materials well. Lung tumor phantom images have sufficient contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) to clearly distinguish tumor from surrounding lung tissue. CNR=4.1 and CNR=29.1 for 10MU and 5000MU images (equivalent to 0.5 and 250 second images), respectively.
Conclusion:
Lung SBRT provides favorable treatment outcomes, but depends on accurate target localization. A comprehensive approach, employing multiple simulation techniques and experiments, is taken to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel scatter imaging modality for the necessary real‐time image guidance.
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