Journal article
The precision of proton range calculations in proton radiotherapy treatment planning: experimental verification of the relation between CT-HU and proton stopping power.
- Schaffner B Division of Radiation Medicine, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
- Pedroni E
- 1998-07-03
Published in:
- Physics in medicine and biology. - 1998
Animals
Biophysical Phenomena
Biophysics
Cattle
Humans
Monte Carlo Method
Neoplasms
Organ Specificity
Phantoms, Imaging
Proton Therapy
Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted
Swine
Technology, Radiologic
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
English
The precision in proton radiotherapy treatment planning depends on the accuracy of the information used to calculate the stopping power properties of the tissues in the patient's body. This information is obtained from computed tomography (CT) images using a calibration curve to convert CT Hounsfield units into relative proton stopping power values. The validity of a stoichiometric method to create the calibration curve has been verified by measuring pairs of Hounsfield units and stopping power values for animal tissue samples. It was found that the agreement between measurement and calibration curve is better than 1% if beam hardening effects in the acquisition of the CT images can be neglected. The influence of beam hardening effects on the quantitative reading of the CT measurements is discussed and an estimation for the overall range precision of proton beams is given. It is expected that the range of protons in the human body can be controlled to better than +/-1.1% of the water equivalent range in soft tissue and +/-1.8% in bone, which translates into a range precision of about 1-3 mm in typical treatment situations.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1088/0031-9155/43/6/016
- PMID 9651027
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/278375
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