Three-dimensional radiation dosimetry using polymer gel and solid radiochromic polymer: From basics to clinical applications

Abstract

Accurate dose measurement tools are needed to evaluate the radiation dose delivered to patients by using modern and sophisticated radiation therapy techniques. However, the adequate tools which enable us to directly measure the dose distributions in three-dimensional (3D) space are not commonly available. One such 3D dose measurement device is the polymer-based dosimeter, which changes the material property in response to radiation. These are available in the gel form as polymer gel dosimeter (PGD) and ferrous gel dosimeter (FGD) and in the solid form as solid plastic dosimeter (SPD). Those are made of a continuous uniform medium which polymerizes upon irradiation. Hence, the intrinsic spatial resolution of those dosimeters is very high, and it is only limited by the method by which one converts the dose information recorded by the medium to the absorbed dose. The current standard methods of the dose quantification are magnetic resonance imaging, optical computed tomography, and X-ray computed tomography. In particular, magnetic resonance imaging is well established as a method for obtaining clinically relevant dosimetric data by PGD and FGD. Despite the likely possibility of doing 3D dosimetry by PGD, FGD or SPD, the tools are still lacking wider usages for clinical applications. In this review article, we summarize the current status of PGD, FGD, and SPD and discuss the issue faced by these for wider acceptance in radiation oncology clinic and propose some directions for future development.

Improvement in sensitivity of radiochromic 3D dosimeter based on rigid polyurethane resin by incorporating tartrazine

“…As a result, 3D dosimeters were developed, which have a method of recording dose distributions in 3D. In the clinical practice, 3D dosimetry is not only performed by moving ionization chambers or silicon diodes or thermoluminescent detectors (TLD) in the water phantom but also chemical dosimetry systems such as polymer gels, radiochromic gels, and radiochromic plastics have been developed, recently [14,15]. These exhibit physical phenomena to radiation that changes their properties (e.g., optical absorption or scattering, X-ray absorption, NMR, or acoustic properties) [16,17].…”

Sensitivity enhancement of DHR123 radio-fluorogenic nanoclay gel dosimeter by incorporating surfactants and halogenides

“…As a typical gel dosimeter, 7 there are Fricke gel [8][9][10][11] and polymer gel [12][13][14][15] dosimeters, and many radiosensitizers 2, [16][17][18][19][20] have been investigated because improving sensitivity is an issue, up to now. On the other hand, there are not many reports in the gel dosimeters utilizing uorometry using radiosensitizers, although there are several type of radio-uorogenic gels.…”

Transit and non‐transit 3D EPID dosimetry versus detector arrays for patient specific QA

“…1,2 The only types of dosimeters currently capable of measuring full-3D dose distributions are polymer gel dosimeters and radiochromic detectors. [3][4][5][6] A more popular option is the use of pseudo 3D dosimeters consisting of a multidimensional detector array capable of reconstructing a portion or the whole 3D dose distribution within a phantom. Commercially available detector arrays, such as Arc-CHECK (Sun Nuclear Corp., Melbourne, FL), Octavius 4D (PTW, Freiburg, Germany), and Delta4 (Scandidos AB, Upsala, Sweden), compare measured to planned 3D dose distributions.…”