• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.43 no.6 s.312
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• pp.68-75
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• 2006

During cancer therapy by using high energy radiation, it is possible to improve the radiation therapy efficiency by performing a precise radiation therapy after verification of generated setup errors. In this paper, the video based electronic portal imaging device (EPID) which could display the portal image with near real time was developed to verify treatment position errors in radiation therapy instead of an analog typed portal film. This EPID system for applying QA tool of radiation therapy machine was consisted of a metal/fluorescent screen, $45^{\circ}$mirror, camera and image grabber. Radiation field verification has been performed to check quality assurance of the treatment machine itself by using this EPID system. The radiation field error was easily observed by edge detection of irradiated field size on EPID image when $0.6^{\circ}$ shift of collimator angle was generated. So, this implemented EPID system could be used as a radiation QA tool.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.33
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• pp.71-78
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• 2021

Purpose: To evaluate the inter-fractional position and respiratory reproducibility of lung and liver tumors using pressure conserving type(P-type) abdominal compressor in volumetric modulated arc therapy(VMAT). Materials and methods: Six lung cancer patients and three liver cancer patients who underwent VMAT using a P-type abdominal compressor were included in this study. Cone-beam computed tomography(CBCT) images were acquired before each treatment and compared with planning CT images to evaluate the inter-fractional position reproducibility. The position variation was defined as the difference of position shift values between target matching and bone matching. 4-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography(4D CBCT) images were acquired weekly before treatment and compared with planning 4DCT images to evaluate the inter-fractional respiratory reproducibility. The respiratory variation was calculated by the magnitude of excursions by breathing. Results: The mean ± standard deviation(SD) of overall position variation values, 3D vector in the three translational directions were 1.1 ± 1.4 mm and 4.5 ± 2.8 mm for the lung and liver, respectively. The mean ± SD of respiratory variation values were 0.7 ± 3.4 mm (p = 0.195) in the lung and 3.6 ± 2.6 mm (p < 0.05) in the liver. Conclusion: The use of P-type compressor in lung and liver VMAT was effective for stable control of inter-fractional position and respiratory variation by reproduction of abdominal compression. Appropriate PTV margin must be considered in treatment planning, and image guidance before each treatment are required in order to obtain more stable reproducibility

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.44-51
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• 2009

It is very important to verify generated setup errors in cancer therapy by using a high energy radiation and to perform the precise radiation therapy. Specially, the verification of treatment position is very crucial in special therapies like fractionated stereotatic radiotherapy (FSRT). The FSRT uses normally high-dose, small field size for treating small intracranial lesions. To estimate the developed FSRT system, the isocenter accuracy of gantry, couch and collimator were performed and a total of inaccuracy was less than ${\pm}1mm$. Precise beam targeting is crucial when using high-dose, small field size FSRT for treating small intracranial lesions. The EPID image of the 3mm lead ball mounted on the isocenter with a 25mm collimator cone was acquired and detected to the extent of one pixel (0.76mm) after comparing the difference between the center of a 25mm collimator cone and a 3 mm ball after processing the EPID image. In this paper, the radiation treatment efficiency can be improved by performing precise radiation therapy with a developed video based EPID and FSRT at near real time

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.1157-1164
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• 2023

This study measures the additional dose for each treatment area using kV X-ray based OBI (On-Board Imager) and CBCT (Cone-Beam CT), which have excellent spatial resolution and contrast, and evaluates the adequacy and stability of radiation management aspects of IGRT. The subjects of the experiment were examined with OBI and CBCT attached to a linear accelerator (Clinac IX), and ring-shaped Halcyon CBCT under imaging conditions for each treatment area, and the dose at the center was measured using an ion chamber. OBI single fraction dose was measured as 0.77 mGy in the head area, 3.04 mGy in the chest area, and 7.19 mGy in the pelvic area. The absorbed doses from the two devices, Clinac IX CBCT and Halcyon CBCT, were measured to be similar in the pelvic area, at 70.04 mGy and 70.45 mGy. and in chest CBCT, the Clinac IX absorbed dose (70.05 mGy) was higher than the Halcyon absorbed dose (21.01 mGy). The absorbed dose to the head area was also higher than that of Clinac IX (9.08 mGy) and Halcyon (5.44 mGy). In kV X-ray-based IGRT, additional radiation exposure due to photoelectric absorption may affect the overall volume of the treatment area, and caution is required.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.120-124
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• 2008

In this study, we developed the protopype of QA phantom for image QA including an additional component for image based radiation treatment system. The new phantom considered two main parts: Image quality and fusion accuracy. Image quality part included for daily CT number linearity and spatial resolution, and fusion accuracy part designed to simulate a simple translation-rotation setting. The CT scans of the phantom obtained from conventional CT, MVCT of Tomotherapy unit, and both image sets were satisfied the recommendation of spatial resolution. This phantom was simple and efficient for daily imaging QA, and it is important to provide a new concept of verification of image registration.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the developed dose verification program for in vivo dosimetry based on transit dose in radiotherapy. Five intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans of lung cancer patients were used in the irradiation of a homogeneous solid water phantom and anthropomorphic phantom. Transit dose distribution was measured using electronic portal imaging device (EPID) and used for the calculation of in vivo dose in patient. The average passing rate compared with treatment planning system based on a gamma index with a 3% dose and a 3 mm distance-to-dose agreement tolerance limit was 95% for the in vivo dose with the homogeneous phantom, but was reduced to 81.8% for the in vivo dose with the anthropomorphic phantom. This feasibility study suggested that transit dose-based in vivo dosimetry can provide information about the actual dose delivery to patients in the treatment room.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2008

TomoTherapy has a merit to treat cancer with Intensity modulated radiation and combines precise 3-D imaging from computerized tomography (CT scanning) with highly targeted radiation beams and rotating beamlets. In this paper, we comparing the dose distribution between TomoTherapy and linear accelerator based intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for 10 Head & Neck patients using TomoTherapy which is newly installed and operated at National Cancer Center since Sept. 2006. Furthermore, we estimate how the homogeneity and Normal Tissue Complication Probability (NTCP) are changed by motion of target. Inverse planning was carried out using CadPlan planning system (CadPlan R.6.4.7, Varian Medical System Inc. 3100 Hansen Way, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1129, USA). For each patient, an inverse IMRT plan was also made using TomoTherapy Hi-Art System (Hi-Art2_2_4 2.2.4.15, TomoTherapy Incorporated, 1240 Deming Way, Madson, WI 53717-1954, USA) and using the same targets and optimization goals. All TomoTherapy plans compared favorably with the IMRT plans regarding sparing of the organs at risk and keeping an equivalent target dose homogeneity. Our results suggest that TomoTherapy is able to reduce the normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) further, keeping a similar target dose homogeneity.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.237-242
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• 2013

In the intracranial regions, an accurate delineation of the target volume has been difficult with only the CT data due to poor soft tissue contrast of CT images. Therefore, the magnetic resonance images (MRI) for the delineation of the target volumes were widely used. To calculate dose distributions with MRI-based RTP, the electron density (ED) mapping concept from the diagnostic CT images and the pseudo CT concept from the MRI were introduced. In this study, the look up table (LUT) from the fifteen patients' diagnostic brain MRI images was created to verify the feasibility of MRI-based RTP. The dose distributions from the MRI-based calculations were compared to the original CT-based calculation. One MRI set has ED information from LUT (lMRI). Another set was generated with voxel values assigned with a homogeneous density of water (wMRI). A simple plan with a single anterior 6MV one portal was applied to the CT, lMRI, and wMRI. Depending on the patient's target geometry for the 3D conformal plan, 6MV photon beams and from two to five gantry portals were used. The differences of the dose distribution and DVH between the lMRI based and CT-based plan were smaller than the wMRI-based plan. The dose difference of wMRI vs. lMRI was measured as 91 cGy vs. 57 cGy at maximum dose, 74 cGt vs. 42 cGy at mean dose, and 94 cGy vs. 53 at minimum dose. The differences of maximum dose, minimum dose, and mean dose of the wMRI-based plan were lower than the lMRI-based plan, because the air cavity was not calculated in the wMRI-based plan. These results prove the feasibility of the lMRI-based planning for brain tumor radiation therapy.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2015

Purpose : Under the assumption of change to the amplitude based sorting, the study will use four dimensional computed tomography imaging (4DCT) arrayed using the phase based sorting to analyze the respiratory phase difference. Materials and Methods : The study analyzed the 4DCT (4-dimensional computed tomography) images of 10 liver cancer patients that were treated with respiratory gated radiotherapy from 2015 February to March. Using RPM respiratory gating (RPM 1.7.5, Varian, USA) equipment, imaging according to respiratory cycle of phase based sorting was acquired and using a treatment planning system (Pinnacle 9.2, Philips, USA) the acquired imaging according to respiratory cycle was used to measure the abdominal movement value by respiratory cycle. The measuring point was the point where the center point of the Marker Block and the body surface met in the 50% phase image and here the coordinate values Lateral, Vertical, Longitudinal (X, Y, Z) were set as reference points, and on the X, Z plane identical to the reference point, using the identical method the Y axis coordinate value of each 0%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 80% phase images were acquired to quantitatively measure the variation of distance to the Y axis. The abdominal movement value according to respiration was applied to the theoretical model that the value decreases linearly from maximum inhalation to maximum exhalation to divide the variation of my value to predict as amplitude value by respiratory cycle and conversely the variation in amplitude was recalculated with the phase variation deviation value to analyze. Results : The deviation value between expected value and actual location was the largest in the 30% phase with 0.24 cm, and standard deviation was also the largest in 30% phase with 0.13 cm. The effective value of the deviation value derived from the average of the deviation squared value of each patient appeared as minimum 0.7 cm, maximum 0.18 cm, average 0.12 cm, and standard deviation 0.4 cm. Also by dividing the actual movement distance value with the peak expiration value then converting it into %Phase, the deviation value with actual phase 16.5% in 30% phase, 10.0% and 40% phase, 10.0% and 60% phase, 15.4% and 80% phase, and overall average about 13%, and arraying based on amplitude, phase shift occurred and further it was from peak expiration the chance of deviation occurrence was increasingly measured. Conclusion : Based on the results of the study there were differences between value acquired based on theoretical model and actual value. Therefore in respiratory gated radiotherapy using external surrogates, there needs to be establishment of respiration gated radiation system that avoids the combination of two Sorting methods considering that there will be occurrence of treatment and corresponding clinical differences due to the phase difference that occur due to the Amplitude based Phase Sorting.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2007

Purpose: Digital medical image commenced with an introduction of PACS has become more popular today in the radiation diagnosis and medical treatment and made great progress, in particular, for medical testing field, whereas it has made slow progress for radiation therapy area. In order to accommodate the current trend of digital from analog, a spherical type mechanical check device (SMCD) that is form of spherical differing from the existing form of flat or cube has been designed and tested its practicability to replace the part in mechanical check with digital image from QA operation. Materials and Methods: If the distance maintains constant between source(target) and image detector with constant distance to the center of spherical type mechanical check device(SMCD), the size will be shown as a constant image at all times regardless of its direction exposed. For the test, two accurate hemispheres are made and put together which results in a sphere of the equilateral circle. Results: It enables a variety of implementation of the existing mechanical check using digital image as follows: congruity level of radiation field and light field, size accuracy of radiation field and collimation field, gantry rotation isocenter check, collimation rotation isocenter check, room laser accuracy check, collimation rotation angle check, couch rotation angle check, and more. Conclusion: It has proved its practicability in checking isocenter congruity level as real time at the time of simultaneous rotation between gantry and couch that is applied to the non-coplanar field, which had been hard to apply as a device formed of existing flat or cube.