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Our newly designed image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) system enables the dynamic tracking irradiation with a gimbaled X-ray head and a dual on-board kilovolt imaging subsystem for real-time target localization. Examinations using a computer-controlled three-dimensionally movable phantom demonstrated that our gimbals tracking system significantly reduced motion blurring effects in the dose distribution compared to the non-tracking state.

We are developing a four-dimensional image-guided radiotherapy system with a gimbaled x-ray head. It is capable of pursuing irradiation and delivering irradiation precisely with the help of an agile moving x-ray head on the gimbals. Requirements for the accelerator guide were established, system design was developed, and detailed design was conducted. An accelerator guide was manufactured and basic beam performance and leakage radiation from the accelerator guide were evaluated at a low pulse repetition rate. The accelerator guide including the electron gun is 38 cm long and weighs about 10 kg. The length of the accelerating structure is 24.4 cm. The accelerating structure is a standing wave type and is composed of the axial-coupled injector section and the side-coupled acceleration cavity section. The injector section is composed of one prebuncher cavity, one buncher cavity, one side-coupled half cavity, and two axial coupling cavities. The acceleration cavity section is composed of eight side-coupled nose reentrant cavities and eight coupling cavities. The electron gun is a diode-type gun with a cerium hexaboride (CeB6) direct heating cathode. The accelerator guide can be operated without any magnetic focusing device. Output beam current was 75 mA with a transmission efficiency of 58%, and the average energy was 5.24 MeV. Beam energy was distributed from 4.95 to 5.6 MeV. The beam profile, measured 88 mm from the beam output hole on the axis of the accelerator guide, was 0.7 mm X 0.9 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) width. The beam loading line was 5.925 (MeV)-Ib (mA) X 0.00808 (MeV/mA), where Ib is output beam current. The maximum radiation leakage of the accelerator guide at 100 cm from the axis of the accelerator guide was calculated as 0.33 cGy/min at the rated x-ray output of 500 cGy/min from the measured value. This leakage requires no radiation shielding for the accelerator guide itself per IEC 60601-2-1.

We are developing a four-dimensional, image-guided radiotherapy system with a gimbaled x-ray head. The system has pursuing irradiation capability in addition to precise irradiation capability, owing to its agile x-ray head. The moving x-ray head requires a very small C-band accelerator guide. The heat intensity of the accelerator guide is much higher than that of conventional S-band medical linear accelerators. The resonance frequency varies over almost 1.0 MHz with a thermal time constant of about 30 s. An automatic frequency controller (AFC) is employed to compensate for this variation in resonance frequency. Furthermore, we noted that fast AFC response is important for step-and-shoot intensity modulation radiotherapy (IMRT), in which the beam is turned on and off frequently. Therefore, we invented a digital AFC, based on a new concept, to provide effective compensation for the thermal characteristics of the accelerator guide and to ensure stable and optimized x-ray treatment. An important aspect of the performance of the AFC is the capture-frequency range over which the AFC can seek, lock on to, and track the resonance frequency. The conventional, analog AFC used in S-band medical linear accelerators would have a capture-frequency range of about 0.9 MHz, if applied to our accelerator guide, and would be inappropriate. Conversely, our new AFC has a capture-frequency range of 24 MHz, which is well suited to our accelerator guide. The design concept behind this new AFC has been developed and verified. A full prototype system was constructed and tested on an existing accelerator guide at the rated x-ray output (500 cGy/min) of our radiotherapy system, with a pulse-repetition frequency of 300 Hz. The AFC acquired the resonance frequency of the accelerator guide within 0.15 s after beam-on, and provided stable tracking and adjustment of the frequency of the microwave source to the resonance frequency of the accelerator guide. With a planned improvement of the initialization of the AFC it should be able to acquire the resonance frequency within 33 ms.

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