Publication

Characterization of the exradin w1 plastic scintillation detector for small field applications in proton therapy

Hoehr, Cornelia
; 
Lindsay, Clayton
; 
Beaudry, Joel
; 
Penner, Crystal
; 
Strgar, Vince
; 
Lee, Richard
; 
Duzenli, Cheryl
Identifiers
http://hdl.handle.net/10379/11949
https://doi.org/10.13025/28304
Repository DOI
10.1088/1361-6560/aabd2d
Publication Date
2018-04-10
Keywords
plastic scintillation dosimeter, proton therapy, small field dosimetry, small proton fields, ocular proton therapy, optic, energy beam dosimetry, vivo skin dosimetry, bc cancer agency, med. phys. 42, optical-fibers, radiation, radiotherapy, light, melanoma, electron
Type
Article
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Citation
Hoehr, Cornelia; Lindsay, Clayton; Beaudry, Joel; Penner, Crystal; Strgar, Vince; Lee, Richard; Duzenli, Cheryl (2018). Characterization of the exradin w1 plastic scintillation detector for small field applications in proton therapy. Physics in Medicine and Biology 63 (9),
Abstract
Accurate dosimetry in small field proton therapy is challenging, particularly for applications such as ocular therapy, and suitable detectors for this purpose are sought. The Exradin W1 plastic scintillating fibre detector is known to out-perform most other detectors for determining relative dose factors for small megavoltage photon beams used in radiotherapy but its potential in small proton beams has been relatively unexplored in the literature. The 1 mm diameter cylindrical geometry and near water equivalence of the W1 makes it an attractive alternative to other detectors. This study examines the dosimetric performance of the W1 in a 74 MeV proton therapy beam with particular focus on detector response characteristics relevant to relative dose measurement in small fields suitable for ocular therapy. Quenching of the scintillation signal is characterized and demonstrated not to impede relative dose measurements at a fixed depth. The background cable-only (cerenkov and radio-fluorescence) signal is 4 orders of magnitude less than the scintillation signal, greatly simplifying relative dose measurements. Comparison with other detectors and Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the W1 is useful for measuring relative dose factors for field sizes down to 5 mm diameter and shallow spread out Bragg peaks down to 6 mm in depth.
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Publisher
IOP Publishing
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Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
cbn
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Externally hosted open access publications with University of Galway authors (2)