Premium
Secondary range shifting with range compensator for reduction of beam data library in heavy‐ion radiotherapy
Author(s) -
Kanematsu Nobuyuki,
Torikoshi Masami,
Mizota Manabu,
Kanai Tatsuaki
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1118/1.2733812
Subject(s) - beam (structure) , range (aeronautics) , reduction (mathematics) , ion beam , materials science , laser beam quality , optics , computer science , physics , laser , laser beams , mathematics , geometry , composite material
We report our experience with extended usage of range compensators in heavy‐ion radiotherapy with broad beams to lighten the management task of the beam data library, which is a collection of the standard beams to be referenced in treatment planning. Partly due to interference between lateral spreading and range shifting, as many as hundreds of beam entries may be necessary to cover all the possible clinical situations. We have introduced downstream secondary range shifting with a range compensator to reduce the interference and consequently to simplify the library. In our case, 30% reduction in beam entries is achieved without significantly degrading the beam quality nor increasing the material consumption by more than 3%, which is experimentally verified with carbon‐ion beams or statistically estimated from the clinical records.