扫描式质子放疗系统自动化束斑测量与分析方法的设计和应用

目的:针对具有录像功能的闪烁体探测器Lynx-PT和笔形束扫描（PBS）质子放疗系统，设计一种质子束斑测量与分析方法，为PBS质子放疗系统的临床调试、束流建模和周期性质控测量提供可靠、高效的解决方案。方法:配置PBS质子放疗系统和Lynx-PT的相关参数，设计数据预处理和束斑分析流程，将两种数据处理流程嵌入自研软件（SpotCheck），实现从束斑采集到数据预处理再到束斑特性分析的全流程自动化。结果:SpotCheck输出的束斑尺寸结果与现有商业化软件（myQA, 比利时IBA公司）以及厂商的现场验收测量结果均保持一致，能成功识别所有束斑录像文件的数据质量问题，并将质子束流占用时间从4 d缩短至0.5 d。结论:本文方法的束斑尺寸计算结果准确、束斑采集速度快、数据处理流程自动化程度高，极大提升了PBS质子放疗系统临床调试和束流建模的效率。     

RayArc在胸部旋转调强放射治疗计划设计中的应用

目的:利用RayStation计划系统提供的RayArc模块,在Varian公司的Trilogy加速器上进行胸部容积旋转调强(VMAT)计划设计,并对胸部VMAT和静态调强放射治疗(sIMRT)两种治疗计划的结果进行评价。方法:利用RayStation计划系统进行VMAT计划设计,需要对加速器参数和计划参数进行正确设置。计划设计使用直接子野优化算法,目标函数的选择遵循与sIMRT类似的标准。随机挑选10例胸部肿瘤(食管癌5例,肺癌5例)患者分别使用RayArc模块,制定VMAT计划,并与相应的sIMRT计划比较剂量分布、靶区适形度,以及危及器官剂量方面的差异情况。VMAT计划采用182°到178°的两个360°对偶治疗弧,sIMRT计划采用角度分别为182°、220°、310°、345°、15°、50°、150°的前后7个照射野,子野数为50,两者使用相同的逆向优化目标函数。结果:VMAT治疗计划经过多次优化,基本上可以在30min内完成,并达到放疗医师制定的临床目标。与前后7野sIMRT计划相比,356°双弧VMAT计划具有更好的靶区适形度,但是肺部的低剂量区(V_5)略高。另外,加速器运行VMAT计划治疗效率较高,可将治疗时间由sIMRT的6~8min缩短为2~3min。结论:使用RayStation计划系统的RayArc模块可以快速高效制定VMAT计划。RayArc制定出的胸部对偶双弧VMAT计划与常见的胸部7野sIMRT计划都可以满足放疗医师的临床目标要求,但是VMAT计划具有更好的靶区适形度和更高的治疗效率。     

放疗计划系统DeepPlan光子放疗剂量计算的临床可行性验证

目的:评估DeepPlan放疗计划系统患者计划剂量计算的准确性和临床应用的可行性。方法:剂量算法准确性评估主要是针对YY 0775号和YY/T 0889号报告中的例题内容进行测量验证。临床病例验证是基于Pinnacle计划系统设计的前列腺肿瘤患者9例、胸部肿瘤患者13例和头颈部肿瘤患者5例，试验将各病例原计划优化的子野等信息直接导入DeepPlan进行重新剂量计算，比较不同计划系统得到的靶区和危及器官剂量分布，并用PTW VeriSoft软件对两组计算结果进行全空间剂量γ分析。结果:DeepPlan光子剂量算法通过了剂量计算准确性验证，YY 0775号报告中所有测试例题误差均在2%以内。YY/T 0889号报告中所有患者计划的γ通过率均在96.8%以上，复合野的γ通过率平均值为98.1%。在病例验证中，前列腺肿瘤病例的等中心层面2D γ通过率平均值为97.6%，3D γ通过率平均值为96.9%。胸部肿瘤病例的等中心层面2D γ通过率平均值为98.7%，3D γ通过率平均值为98.3%。头颈部肿瘤病例的中间层面2D γ通过率为98.6%，3D γ通过率平均值为98.8%。结论:通过模体实际测量和临床病例测试，验证了DeepPlan光子放疗剂量计算的准确性和临床应用的可行性。     

医用质子加速器扩展束流与笔形束流的感生放射性辐射剂量

目的:通过比较医用质子加速器两种不同束流引出方式的X/γ射线感生放射性辐射剂量差异,从而采取相应措施降低治疗室的环境辐射水平,减少医用质子加速器工作人员的累积辐射剂量。方法:模拟患者治疗的肿瘤辐射野,分别在质子加速器扩展束流治疗室和笔形束流治疗室进行15 CGE的质子射线照射,射线停止60 s后,进入治疗室利用两台Neutron RAE II检测仪同时对射线输出窗口和治疗床等中心这两个位置进行X/γ射线感生放射性辐射剂量测量,并记录数据。按以上出束条件和测量步骤,重复测量3次,每次间隔30 min。结果:扩展束流射线输出窗的3次测量值依次为32.3、63.2、70.1μSv/h,在治疗床等中心的3次测量值依次为4.5、5.6、7.7μSv/h,两个测量点的感生放射性辐射剂量率均随着测量次序依次增加。笔形束流射线输出窗的3次测量值依次为3.2、2.3、2.1μSv/h,在治疗床等中心的3次测量值依次为0.21、0.18、0.18μSv/h,两个测量点的感生放射性辐射剂量率均与测量次序无关。在输出窗位置,扩展束流的测量平均值是笔形束流测量平均值的21.8倍;在治疗床等中心位置,扩展束流的测量平均值是笔形束流测量平均值的31.2倍。结论:在出束剂量和时间相同的情况下,笔形束流的感生辐射剂量较小,其机房环境辐射水平远远低于扩展束流机房,对工作人员有更好的保护作用。     

质子放疗

质子放射治疗近年来有了较快的发展,世界上作为研究用的很多家质子治疗机构早就在运行,作为商业产品的质子放疗机也已经有多台设备在世界各地安装和运行.质子束对于肿瘤治疗比其它放疗模式优越的地方主要在于利用质子束的Bragg峰,更好地适形包络肿瘤的不同形状,其包络的边界比X和γ-射线更锐.质子放疗之所以能够商业化,得益于质子加速器技术和质子剂量学的进步,以及包括核心部件在内的整套设备的可靠性大大提高.但是质子放疗在运动靶区和实时的影像监督方面也还有很多问题仍然需要进一步完善.以山东淄博万杰医院为代表,国内也已经开始质子放疗的临床工作,还有医院正在筹建.作为处于商业化初级阶段的质子放疗,由于设备的复杂性和价格,在中国还缺乏合格的医学物理师和维护工程师的情况下,这类放疗设备不宜大量发展.     

质子和其他放射治疗肿瘤的比较

质子加速器是目前世界上最先进的放射治疗设备。本文对质子和目前各国常用的常规射线(兆伏特级的光子和电子),在肿瘤的放射治疗方面进行了比较。并复习了世界各国用质子治疗肿瘤的经验,介绍质子治疗肿瘤的优点、发展历史以及发展前景。质子束进入人体组织时,其大量的能量集中在接近射程终点,称为Bragg峰。放射治疗医生可以通过调节质子加速器能量的方式,使高能量区集中在病人体内一定的区域;在此高量区的后方,放射剂量骤降为零。因此,医生可以使放射线的高剂量区集中在靶区(肿瘤区),避免周围正常组织部受到照射。而用常规射线照射时,周围正常组织仍受到较高量的照射。用目前先进的三维适形放射治疗和调强放射治疗技术,只需用少数的照射野,即可达到非常满意的放射剂量分布。到2004年2月,世界上已有11个国家正在开展质子治疗工作;已用质子治疗病人35838例。所治疗的肿瘤有眼葡萄膜黑色素瘤、中枢神经系统肿瘤、颅底肿瘤、前列腺癌、非小细胞肺癌、胃肠道肿瘤、鼻咽癌、乳腺癌和官颈癌等,均取得较好的效果。目前已引起世界各国放射治疗学界的重视。     

基于共轭梯度法的调强算法的实现

目的：研究调强放射治疗（IMRT）的具体实现与约束条件的表述。材料与方法：在每个射野方向上，利用真实的笔形束剂量分布数据，并加入机头散射、组织补偿等因素，计算得到单位剂量笔形束在特定位置形成的剂量分布。在优化过程中，以此笔形束剂量分布为依据进行剂量计算。用Visual C＋＋6．0编写基于共轭梯度法的IMRT的算法实现，并考虑多种约束条件。最后求解优化的射野笔形束权重，并加以分析。结果：在TPS软件中集成IMRT功能，并进行模拟病例的优化，获得了高适形度的剂量分布，满足DVH约束。结论：结合特定的约束条件，共轭梯度法能有效的优化射野笔形束权重，并且有较快的计算速度，有广阔的应用前景。     

Varian RapidARC直线加速器6 MeV-X线虚拟源模型的建立

目的:减少直线加速器commission过程的工作量,对加速器出束信息进行建模,使用蒙特卡罗方法进行剂量计算,并验证模型的准确性。方法:将光子束区分为初始光子束和散射光子束,分别用数学公式描述其能量和方向,建立虚拟源模型,使用蒙特卡罗方法计算在水中的剂量分布,与水箱中的测量数据比较。使用源模型计算病例计划,与商用TPS计算结果比较。结果:计算得到的PDD误差基本在1.0%以内,OAR误差在2.0%以内。在1例前列腺病例计划中,本方法计算得到的DVH曲线与不同TPS计算得到的结果基本一致。结论:本虚拟源模型方法可以很好地模拟直线加速器的出束信息,计算单个病例时间在40 s量级,可以实现病人治疗前实时的剂量验证,且有用于直线加速器自动commission过程的潜力。     

医用直线加速器治疗床对放疗剂量影响的研究

目的 探讨西门子医用直线加速器治疗床对放疗剂量影响的研究.方法 将固体水模固定在治疗床中心处,改变加速器机臂的角度,从不同角度照射并用剂量仪进行比对测量,计算出治疗床不同床板对放疗剂量的衰减因子.结果 西门子医用直线加速器治疗床中有机玻璃床头板对剂量的衰减在1.5-20.5%,有机玻璃床体板对剂量的衰减在1.9～38.6%,有机玻璃网状窗体板对剂量的衰减在0.18-12.3%.结论 放射治疗时正后野180°左右时应选用网状板或有机玻璃床头板,在后侧斜野110°～130°和230°～250°区间最好用床尾板,并对相应剂量做出修正与补偿,而治疗床的主支撑架及金属边柜对剂量的衰减高达12.3～38.6%,而床头延伸板对剂量的衰减在1.1～5.5%之间,因此头部的肿瘤应选此延伸板治疗.因此在治疗计划设计与实施过程中应避免射线束直接穿过主支撑架与金属边框.     

利用蒙特卡罗模拟评估空气间隙对点扫描质子治疗的剂量影响

目的:利用蒙特卡罗模拟探究空气间隙对点扫描质子治疗的剂量影响。方法:利用通用蒙特卡罗程序Geant4平台构建使用射程移位器的治疗头末端的点扫描质子束流模型,并进行验证。模拟计算不同能量、不同射程移位器、不同束斑尺寸、不同束斑数目在不同空气间隙条件下的质子束流在水模体中的剂量沉积,并通过获得的积分深度剂量生成剂量修正因子对剂量的差异进行比较。结果:不同空气间隙会造成剂量损失,随空气间隙增大而增大,随水模体中深度增加而减小。对于能量更高的射束和使用水等效厚度更薄的射程移位器,剂量损失越大。束斑尺寸改变和束斑数目增加较少时造成的剂量损失与同条件下单一束流无显著差别。结论:当使用射程移位器、肿瘤位置较浅、空气间隙较大时,建议建立剂量修正因子数据库应用于治疗计划系统对剂量进行修正。     

Modelling lateral beam quality variations in pencil kernel based photon dose calculations

Standard treatment machines for external radiotherapy are designed to yield flat dose distributions at a representative treatment depth. The common method to reach this goal is to use a flattening filter to decrease the fluence in the centre of the beam. A side effect of this filtering is that the average energy of the beam is generally lower at a distance from the central axis, a phenomenon commonly referred to as off-axis softening. The off-axis softening results in a relative change in beam quality that is almost independent of machine brand and model. Central axis dose calculations using pencil beam kernels show no drastic loss in accuracy when the off-axis beam quality variations are neglected. However, for dose calculated at off-axis positions the effect should be considered, otherwise errors of several per cent can be introduced. This work proposes a method to explicitly include the effect of off-axis softening in pencil kernel based photon dose calculations for arbitrary positions in a radiation field. Variations of pencil kernel values are modelled through a generic relation between half value layer (HVL) thickness and off-axis position for standard treatment machines. The pencil kernel integration for dose calculation is performed through sampling of energy fluence and beam quality in sectors of concentric circles around the calculation point. The method is fully based on generic data and therefore does not require any specific measurements for characterization of the off-axis softening effect, provided that the machine performance is in agreement with the assumed HVL variations. The model is verified versus profile measurements at different depths and through a model self-consistency check, using the dose calculation model to estimate HVL values at off-axis positions. A comparison between calculated and measured profiles at different depths showed a maximum relative error of 4% without explicit modelling of off-axis softening. The maximum relative error was reduced to 1% when the off-axis softening was accounted for in the calculations.     

Dose calculation models for proton treatment planning using a dynamic beam delivery system: an attempt to include density heterogeneity effects in the analytical dose calculation

The gantry for proton radiotherapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is designed specifically for the spot-scanning technique. Use of this technique to its full potential requires dose calculation algorithms which are capable of precisely simulating each scanned beam individually. Different specialized analytical dose calculations have been developed, which attempt to model the effects of density heterogeneities in the patient's body on the dose. Their accuracy has been evaluated by a comparison with Monte Carlo calculated dose distributions in the case of a simple geometrical density interface parallel to the beam and typical anatomical situations. A specialized ray casting model which takes range dilution effects (broadening of the spectrum of proton ranges) into account has been found to produce results of good accuracy. This algorithm can easily be implemented in the iterative optimization procedure used for the calculation of the optimal contribution of each individual scanned pencil beam. In most cases an elemental pencil beam dose calculation has been found to be most accurate. Due to the long computing time, this model is currently used only after the optimization procedure as an alternative method of calculating the dose.     

A finite-size pencil beam model for photon dose calculations in three dimensions.

A three-dimensional dose computation model employing a finite-size, diverging, pencil beam has been developed and is demonstrated for Cobalt-60 gamma rays. The square cross-section pencil beam is simulated in a semi-infinite water phantom by convolving the pencil beam photon fluence with the Monte Carlo point dose kernel for Cobalt-60. This finite-size pencil beam is calculated one time and becomes a new data base with which to build larger beams by two-dimensional superposition. The pencil beam fluence profile, angle correction for beam divergence, the Mayneord inverse square correction, radial and angular sampling rates, error propagation, and computation time have been investigated and are reported. Radial and angular sampling rates have a great effect on accuracy and their appropriate selection is important. Percent depth doses calculated by finite-size pencil beam superposition are within 1% of values calculated by full convolution and the agreement with values from the literature is within 6%. The latter disagreement is shown to be due to a low-energy photon component which is not modeled in other calculations. Computation time measurements show the pencil beam method to be faster than full convolution and one implementation of the differential-scatter-air-ratio (dSAR) method.     

Electron beam dose calculations

Electron beam dose distributions in the presence of inhomogeneous tissue are calculated by an algorithm that sums the dose distribution of individual pencil beams. The off-axis dependence of the pencil beam dose distribution is described by the Fermi-Eyges theory of thick-target multiple Coulomb scattering. Measured square-field depth-dose data serve as input for the calculations. Air gap corrections are incorporated and use data from'in-air' measurements in the penumbra of the beam. The effective depth, used to evaluate depth-dose, and the sigma of the off-axis Gaussian spread against depth are calculated by recursion relations from a CT data matrix for the material underlying individual pencil beams. The correlation of CT number with relative linear stopping power and relative linear scattering power for various tissues is shown. The results of calculations are verified by comparison with measurements in a 17 MeV electron beam from the Therac 20 linear accelerator. Calculated isodose lines agree nominally to within 2 mm of measurements in a water phantom. Similar agreement is observed in cork slabs simulating lung. Calculations beneath a bone substitute illustrate a weakness in the calculation. Finally a case of carcinoma in the maxillary antrum is studied. The theory suggests an alternative method for the calculation of depth-dose of rectangular fields.     

Initial beam size study for passive scatter proton therapy. II. Changes in delivered depth dose profiles

In passively scattered proton radiotherapy, a clinically useful treatment beam is produced by spreading a small proton "pencil beam" extracted from the accelerator to create both a uniform dose profile laterally and a uniform spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) in depth. Lateral spreading and range modulation of the beam are accomplished using specially designed components within the treatment delivery nozzle. The purpose of this study was to determine how changes in the size of the initial proton pencil beam affect the delivery of dose with a passive scatter treatment nozzle. Monte Carlo calculations were used to study changes of the beam's in-air energy distribution at the exit of the nozzle and the central axis depth dose profiles in water resulting from changes in the incident beam size. Our results indicate that the width of the delivered SOBP decreases as the size of the initial beam increases.     

The effect of dose calculation accuracy on inverse treatment planning

The effect of dose calculation accuracy during inverse treatment planning for intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) was studied in this work. Three dose calculation methods were compared: Monte Carlo, superposition and pencil beam. These algorithms were used to calculate beamlets. which were subsequently used by a simulated annealing algorithm to determine beamlet weights which comprised the optimal solution to the objective function. Three different cases (lung, prostate and head and neck) were investigated and several different objective functions were tested for their effect on inverse treatment planning. It is shown that the use of inaccurate dose calculation introduces two errors in a treatment plan, a systematic error and a convergence error. The systematic error is present because of the inaccuracy of the dose calculation algorithm. The convergence error appears because the optimal intensity distribution for inaccurate beamlets differs from the optimal solution for the accurate beamlets. While the systematic error for superposition was found to be approximately 1% of Dmax in the tumour and slightly larger outside, the error for the pencil beam method is typically approximately 5% of Dmax and is rather insensitive to the given objectives. On the other hand, the convergence error was found to be very sensitive to the objective function, is only slightly correlated to the systematic error and should be determined for each case individually. Our results suggest that because of the large systematic and convergence errors, inverse treatment planning systems based on pencil beam algorithms alone should be upgraded either to superposition or Monte Carlo based dose calculations.     

The grid-dose-spreading algorithm for dose distribution calculation in heavy charged particle radiotherapy

A new variant of the pencil-beam (PB) algorithm for dose distribution calculation for radiotherapy with protons and heavier ions, the grid-dose spreading (GDS) algorithm, is proposed. The GDS algorithm is intrinsically faster than conventional PB algorithms due to approximations in convolution integral, where physical calculations are decoupled from simple grid-to-grid energy transfer. It was effortlessly implemented to a carbon-ion radiotherapy treatment planning system to enable realistic beam blurring in the field, which was absent with the broad-beam (BB) algorithm. For a typical prostate treatment, the slowing factor of the GDS algorithm relative to the BB algorithm was 1.4, which is a great improvement over the conventional PB algorithms with a typical slowing factor of several tens. The GDS algorithm is mathematically equivalent to the PB algorithm for horizontal and vertical coplanar beams commonly used in carbon-ion radiotherapy while dose deformation within the size of the pristine spread occurs for angled beams, which was within 3 mm for a single 150-MeV proton pencil beam of 30 degrees incidence, and needs to be assessed against the clinical requirements and tolerances in practical situations.     

A toolbox for intensity modulated radiation therapy optimization

We have designed a toolbox that provides an environment for testing radiotherapy optimization techniques, objective functions, and constraints. A set of three-dimensional (3D) pencil beam dose distributions have been computed for a cylindrical phantom. The 6 MV pencil beams were computed using a superposition-based dose engine commissioned for an Elekta SL20 linear accelerator. Due to the cylindrical symmetry of the phantom, the pencil beam dose distributions for any arbitrary beam angle can be determined by simply rotating the pencil beam data sets. Thus, the full accuracy is maintained without the need for additional dose calculations or large data storage requirements. In addition to the pencil beam data sets, tools are included for (1) rotating the pencil beams, (2) calculating the beam's eye view, (3) drawing structures, (4) writing the pencil beam dose data out to the optimizer, and (5) visualizing the optimized results. The pencil beam data sets and the corresponding tools are available for download at http://medschool.umaryland.edu/departments/radiationoncology/pencilbeam/. With this toolbox, researchers will have the ability to rapidly test new optimization techniques and formulations for intensity modulated radiation therapy and 3D conformal radiotherapy.     

Beam modeling and verification of a photon beam multisource model

Dose calculations for treatment planning of photon beam radiotherapy require a model of the beam to drive the dose calculation models. The beam shaping process involves scattering and filtering that yield radiation components which vary with collimator settings. The necessity to model these components has motivated the development of multisource beam models. We describe and evaluate clinical photon beam modeling based on multisource models, including lateral beam quality variations. The evaluation is based on user data for a pencil kernel algorithm and a point kernel algorithm (collapsed cone) used in the clinical treatment planning systems Helax-TMS and Nucletron-Oncentra. The pencil kernel implementations treat the beam spectrum as lateral invariant while the collapsed cone involves off axis softening of the spectrum. Both algorithms include modeling of head scatter components. The parameters of the beam model are derived from measured beam data in a semiautomatic process called RDH (radiation data handling) that, in sequential steps, minimizes the deviations in calculated dose versus the measured data. The RDH procedure is reviewed and the results of processing data from a large number of treatment units are analyzed for the two dose calculation algorithms. The results for both algorithms are similar, with slightly better results for the collapsed cone implementations. For open beams, 87% of the machines have maximum errors less than 2.5%. For wedged beams the errors were found to increase with increasing wedge angle. Internal, motorized wedges did yield slightly larger errors than external wedges. These results reflect the increased complexity, both experimentally and computationally, when wedges are used compared to open beams.