• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.61 no.3
• /
• pp.386-392
• /
• 2018

Radiation therapy is highly effective for the management of pediatric malignant central nervous system (CNS) tumors including embryonal tumors. With the increment of long-term survivors from malignant CNS tumors, the radiation-related toxicities have become a major concern and we need to improve the treatment strategies to reduce the late complications without compromising the treatment outcomes. One of such strategies is to reduce the radiation dose to craniospinal axis or radiation volume and to avoid or defer radiation therapy until after the age of three. Another strategy is using particle beam therapy such as proton beams instead of photon beams. Proton beams have distinct physiologic advantages over photon beams and greater precision in radiation delivery to the tumor while preserving the surrounding healthy tissues. In this review, I provide the treatment principles of pediatric CNS embryonal tumors and the strategic improvements of radiation therapy to reduce treatment-related late toxicities, and finally introduce the increasing availability of proton beam therapy for pediatric CNS embryonal tumors compared with photon beam therapy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.29-35
• /
• 1998

There has been necessity of an air free ionization chamber using the gold-crystal-aluminium plates, henceforth called the crystal chamber. The crystal chamber formed of parallel plates is very small in size and has more response for absorbed dose of therapeutic radiation beams. The gold plate on the crystal facing the photon and electron beam acts as an intensifier of signals and crystal plate as an ionization medium respectively. Both the copper guard ring and the aluminum collecting electrode are connected to an electrometer. Using high energy photon (6, 15 MV) and electron (9, 12, 15, 18 MeV) beams, the responses of the crystal chamber are evaluated against a PTW Farmer-type chamber at a field size of 10${\times}$10cm$^2$ and 100 cm SSD. The responses of crystal chamber for therapeutic radiation electron and photon beams are greater in magnitude by several order than Farmer. The crystal chamber has good linearity without correction factor C$\_$t,p/ with respect to the signals, a reading reproduction with good accuracy and precision less than 0.5%, and has other useful functions in measuring radiation beams.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.7-10
• /
• 1980

With the conceptual definition of the quotient(${\beta}$) of absorbed dose and the collision part of kerma for photon beams, the procedure of computing ${\beta}$ is briefly described. A series of calculations of ${\beta}$ was carried out for photons of 0.4, 0.5, 1 and 2 MeV in polystyrene, carbon, air and aluminum. Resultant values are tabulated and evaluated.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.20-28
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The objective of this study is to perform Postal dosimetry audits for medical linear accelerators in radiation therapy institutions using glass dosimeters and Gafchromic film reading systems and postal dosimetry audit procedures, and to evaluate radiation therapy doses and mechanical accuracy in medical institutions. Methods: Photon output measured and analyzed using a standard phantom for measuring photon output dose using a glass dosimeter for medical linear accelerators. Mechanical accuracy was measured and analyzed using software for film measurement. Results: Measurement and analysis of photon beam output dose using a standard phantom glass dosimeter for photon beam output dose measurement was completed. All tolerance doses were within 5%. Mechanical accuracy measurement and analysis using a standard phantom for verifying the mechanical accuracy of linear accelerator (LINAC) using a Gafchromic film were completed, and all results were shown within tolerances (2 mm or less). Conclusions: In this study, Postal dosimetry audits were performed on the output dose and mechanical accuracy of photon beams (207 beams) for 106 LINACs from 48 institutions. As a result of corrective action and re-execution, it was confirmed that all engines met the acceptable standard within 2 mm in the linear accelerator.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.195-203
• /
• 1999

It is difficult to determine dosimetric characteristics for small field photon beams since such small fields do not achieve complete lateral electronic equilibrium and have steep dose gradients. Dosimetric characteristics of small field 4, 6, and 10 MeV photon beams have been measured in water with a diamond detector and compared to measurements using small volume cylindrical and plane parallel ionization chambers. Percent depth dose (PDD) and beam profiles for 6 and 10 MeV photon beams were measured with diamond detector and cylindrical ion chamber for small fields ranging from $1{\times}1\;to\;4{\times}4cm^2$. Total scatter factors($S_{c,p}$) for 4, 6, and 10 MeV photon beams were measured with diamond detector, cylindrical and plane parallel ion chambers for small fields ranging from $1{\times}1\;to\;4{\times}4cm^2$. The $S_{c,p}$ factors obtained with three detectors for 4, 6, and 10 MeV photon beams agreed well ($\pm1.2%$) for field sizes greater than $2{\times}2,\;2.5{\times}2.5,\;and\;3{\times}3\;cm^2$, respectively. For smaller field sizes, the cylindrical and plane parallel ionization chambers measure a smaller $S_{c,p}$ factor, as a result of the steep dose gradients across their sensitive volumes. The PDD values obtained with diamond detector and cylindrical ionization chamber for 6 and 10MeV photon beams agreed well ($\pm1.5%$) for field sizes greater than $4{\times}4\;cm^2$. For smaller field sizes, diamond detector produced a depth-dose curve which had a significantly shallower falloff than that obtained from the measurements of relative depth-dose with a cylindrical ionization chamber. For the measurements of beam profiles, a distortion in terms of broadened penumbra was observed with a cylindrical ionization chamber since diamond detector exhibited higher spatial resolution. The diamond detector with small sensitive volume, near water equivalent, and high spatial resolution is suitable detector compared to ionization chambers for the measurements of small field photon beams.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 1996

When high energy photon beam is incident upon an air cavity interface the effect of ionization build-up observed. This phenomenon is resulting from the surface layers of the lesions are significant deficiency of electrons reaching the layers because of the replacement of solid scattering material by the air cavity, that is lack of electronic equilibrium. Measurement have been made in an acrylic phantom with a parallel plate chamber and high energy Photon beams, CO-60, 4MV, 6MV and 10MV X-rays have been investigated. The result of our study show that a significant effect was measured and was determined to be very dependent on field size, air cavity dimension and photon energy. The reductions were much larger for 10MV beam, underdosage at the interface was 12, 12.2, 16.9 and 20.6% for the CO-60, 4 MV, 6MV and 10MV, respectively. It was found that this non-equilibrium effect at the interface is more severe for the higher energy beams than that of lower energy beams and the larger cavity dimensions it is, the larger beam reductions we have. This problem is of clinical concern when lesions such as carcinoma beyond air cavities are irradiated, such as larynx, glottic and the patients with maxillectomy and ethmoidectomy and so forth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2002.11a
• /
• pp.71-74
• /
• 2002

Currently small and accurate dosimeters are on the rise. In this study, the feasibility and energy dependency of the electret dosimeter that made of PET (polyethylene terephtalate) were observed by irradiating 4, 6, 15 MV photon beams from the clinical linear accelerator to develop a dosimeter for the clinical field. $10{\times}10cm$ field size of the photon beams were irradiated to the electret dosimeter where the 2.5 cm depth in the polystylene phantom from 100 cm SSD, while 300 DCV was applied to the electret dosimeter. The result showed that the absorbed dose was proportional to the charge linearly, and the volume of a dosimeter could be reduced and the signals were high enough. According to this study, it was found that the polymer electret detector could be produced as a large quantity with a small cost and showed the feasibility of a realtime measurement.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.43-48
• /
• 2009

When the PDD (percentage depth dose) in the megavoltage beams is measured in the water phantom, the polarity and ion recombination effects of ionization chambers with depth in water are not usually taken into consideration. We try to investigate if those variations with depth should be taken into consideration or could be ignored for the thimble type semiflex ionization chamber (PTW $31010^{TM}$, SN 1551). According to the recommendation of IAEA TRS-398, the 4 representative depths of $d_s$, $d_{max}$, $d_{90}$ and $d_{50}$ were used for the electron beams. For the photon beams, the 4 depths were arbitrarily chosen for the photon beams, which were $d_s$, $d_{max}$, $d_{10}$ and $d_{20}$. For the high energy photon beam both polarity and ion recombination factors of the chamber with depth in water gives the good agreements within the maximum $\pm$0.2%, while the $C_{polS}$ with depth came within the maximum $\pm$ 0.4% and the $C_{IRS}$ within the maximum $\pm$0.6% in every electron beam used. This study shows that PDI (percentage depth ionization) could be a good approximation to PDD for the chamber used.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.96-101
• /
• 2011

In this study, we fabricated a fiber-optic phantom dosimeter by arraying square type of plastic optical fibers in a PMMA phantom for measuring relative depth doses of therapeutic photon beams. To minimize the cross-talk between fiber-optic dosimeters, we selected appropriate septum by measuring leaked scintillating lights according to the various kinds of septa. In addition, we measured percentage depth doses of 6, 15 MV photon beams using a fiber-optic phantom dosimeter.

• Progress in Medical Physics
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.51-60
• /
• 1995

Lithium Fluoride (LiF; TLD-100) crystal chips are normally used as thermolu minescence dosimeters (abbreviated as NC-100) for estimating the absorbed dose to the skin of a patient or in a solid water phantom undergoing radiotherapy with megavoltage photon (6 and 15MV) beams. In general, investigation has revealed a reduction in the sensitivity of NC-100 chips after many runs through heating cycles. A TLD-100 chip laminated with gold plate (140${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) on the upper surface layer of its face toward the photon beam (abbreviated as GC-100) has properties different from that of a NC-100 chip activated by incident photons and contaminant electrons with various lower energies coming from the gantry head and air. Activation of the valence band electrons of GC-100 chips by incident photons, positrons and electrons-which come from the gold plate by mainly pair production process and partly from Compton scattering-results in more enhanced signal intensity, higher response per monitor unit, as well as a good linearity with monitor units and independence of dose rate. Since the electron beams (6 and 15 MeV) do not have the probability of pair production process with gold plate, there is only a small difference (about a 3.3％ increase for 15 MeV) in the signal gaps in the TL readout for electron beams between GC- and NC-100 chips. The 3.3％ increase is entirely due to the buildup caused by the 140 m gold plate. The sensitivity of GC-100 chips is much more susceptible to high energy photon beams than electron one because of pair production. The interaction of high energy photon with a material of high atomic number, such as the good plate in this case, results in a considerably significant probability of pair production. The gold plate on the NC-100 chips acts as not only an intensifier of their signals but also acts as a filter of contaminant electrons in therapeutic high energy X-ray beams.