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Comparative skin dose measurement in the treatment of anal canal cancer: Conventional versus conformal therapy
Author(s) -
Devic Slobodan,
Hegyi Gyorgy,
Vuong Té,
Muanza Thierry,
Podgorsak Ervin B.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.1737511
Subject(s) - medicine , imaging phantom , nuclear medicine , sagittal plane , conformal map , perineum , dosimetry , anal canal , radiation therapy , radiation treatment planning , radiology , rectum , anatomy , surgery , mathematics , geometry
The subject of this work was to compare the effect of Conventional and Conformal techniques, used for anal canal cancer treatments, on the skin dose deposition. Skin dose was measured on a Rando phantom using XR‐T GAFCHROMIC® film. A skin surface dose histogram was constructed and a skin dose profile in the sagittal direction of the perineal region was measured, for both techniques. The measured skin dose in the anterior and posterior region of the skin exposed to radiation is from two to ten times higher when using a conventional technique. In the perineal region, an 85% of the prescription isodose line spreads over 25% of the perineum for conformal technique as compared to 65% with conventional techniques. In addition, conformal technique dose profiles confine better the anatomical position of the anal verge than conventional techniques. Results presented in this work confirm clinically observed improvement in the radiation‐induced dermatitis when using the conformal technique.