Conceptual design of a proton computed tomography system for applications in proton radiation therapy

Schulte, R.; Bashkirov, V.; Li, Tianfang; Zhang, Liang; Mueller, Klaus; Heimann, J.; Johnson, Leah R.; Keeney, Brian A.; Sadrozinski, H. F-W.; Seiden, A.; Williams, D. C.; Zhang, Lan; Li, Zhang; Peggs, S.; Satogata, T.

doi:10.1109/tns.2004.829392

Cited by 203 publications

(166 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The Silicon strip technology developed by particle physicists is being explored for medical imaging, notably in proton-computed tomography (pCT) (Sadrozinski, 2013;Schulte et al, 2004). Active pixel sensors, developed for LHC detectors, are candidates for retinal implants which have the potential to restore partial sight to the blind (Woodcraft, 2009).…”

Section: Silicon Detectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle and nuclear physics instrumentation and its broad connections

et al. 2016

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Section: Silicon Detectorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle and nuclear physics instrumentation and its broad connections

et al. 2016

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“…There is research being undertaken into the development of proton CT. This would remove the uncertainty in the conversion from HUs to protonstopping powers and enable image guidance with the patient set-up for treatment [26].…”

Section: Range Calculation In the Treatment Planning Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Treatment planning optimisation in proton therapy

McGowan¹,

Burnet²,

Lomax³

2013

BJR

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ABSTRACT. The goal of radiotherapy is to achieve uniform target coverage while sparing normal tissue. In proton therapy, the same sources of geometric uncertainty are present as in conventional radiotherapy. However, an important and fundamental difference in proton therapy is that protons have a finite range, highly dependent on the electron density of the material they are traversing, resulting in a steep dose gradient at the distal edge of the Bragg peak. Therefore, an accurate knowledge of the sources and magnitudes of the uncertainties affecting the proton range is essential for producing plans which are robust to these uncertainties. This review describes the current knowledge of the geometric uncertainties and discusses their impact on proton dose plans. The need for patient-specific validation is essential and in cases of complex intensity-modulated proton therapy plans the use of a planning target volume (PTV) may fail to ensure coverage of the target. In cases where a PTV cannot be used, other methods of quantifying plan quality have been investigated. A promising option is to incorporate uncertainties directly into the optimisation algorithm. A further development is the inclusion of robustness into a multicriteria optimisation framework, allowing a multi-objective Pareto optimisation function to balance robustness and conformity. The question remains as to whether adaptive therapy can become an integral part of a proton therapy, to allow re-optimisation during the course of a patient's treatment. The challenge of ensuring that plans are robust to range uncertainties in proton therapy remains, although these methods can provide practical solutions. The ability to create and deliver the ideal treatment plan, where the target volume receives 100% of the prescribed dose and normal tissue receives 0%, is the holy grail of radiation therapy [1]. It is, however, impossible to achieve this perfect balance. Instead, multiple trade-offs are required to achieve a clinically acceptable plan, so the problem becomes one of optimisation. There are many factors that can affect how ''optimised'' a patient's treatment can be. This review focuses on the challenges of proton therapy plan optimisation, particularly in regard to range uncertainties, and how to incorporate them into the plan evaluation and verification process.The nature of proton therapy makes the aim of cure without complications potentially more achievable, owing to the highly localised deposition of dose in the characteristic Bragg peak [2]. This relates predominantly to the ability to deliver high doses of radiation close to normal tissue structures, which would be dose limiting in conventional X-ray treatments, and to the finite range of protons, which results in a reduced integral dose to surrounding normal tissues.From a clinical perspective, the exact role of proton therapy has yet to be defined. However, for childhood cancers, proton therapy delivers a lower dose to tissues around the tumour than X-rays, resulting in less growth disturbance and l...

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“…In one of the current generation pCT designs [5], individual protons are tracked pre-and post-patient with 2D sensitive silicon strip detectors (SSDs), providing information about proton position and direction at the boundaries of the image space. This allows the effects of multiple Coulomb scattering within the object to be accounted for in a most likely path (MLP) estimation [6], [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using these measurements, one can calculate either the path integral of relative electron density of a water equivalent object [5], i.e., an object of water composition but varying electron density that produces the same energy loss as the real object, or the integral of relative stopping power along each proton path. In this study we calculated the latter with Eq.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast and Accurate Proton Computed Tomography Image Reconstruction for Applications in Proton Therapy

et al. 2009

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Abstract-Proton computed tomography has been suggested as a means for maximizing the potential benefits of proton radiation therapy. By measuring individual proton energy losses after traversing an object and predicting paths of maximum likelihood through the image space, relative stopping power maps can be generated for treatment planning and image guidance. However, the processes of proton interaction with the imaged object lead to a number of challenges in the image reconstruction procedure. In this work we describe our approach to obtaining accurate relative stopping power maps in the shortest amount of time.Keywords-proton computed tomography, relative stopping power, block-iterative projection.

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Conceptual design of a proton computed tomography system for applications in proton radiation therapy

Cited by 203 publications

References 15 publications

Particle and nuclear physics instrumentation and its broad connections

Particle and nuclear physics instrumentation and its broad connections

Treatment planning optimisation in proton therapy

Fast and Accurate Proton Computed Tomography Image Reconstruction for Applications in Proton Therapy

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