Nanotechnology in radiation oncology: The need for implantable nano dosimeters for in-vivo real time measurements

Rapidly advancing technology provides successive generations of irradiation techniques and modalities of cancer treatment in radiation oncology. Most of these techniques are able to deliver higher doses per fraction than the standard 2 Gy per day. The complexity of these new techniques involves hundreds of parameters for the delivery of each beam making quality assurance increasingly demanding. A direct assessment of the "final product", namely the absorbed dose, would be extremely useful if easy to obtain. Thus, a real need exists for dosimeters able to provide direct and real time measurements within the target volume. Nanotechnology is a relatively new field, and in some ways raises new technological aspirations, especially in the field of medical applications for cancer treatment. In this paper we argue the need for an implantable “nano-dosimeter” based on nanotechnology to monitor the delivered dose, combining all the ideal features such a future tool should have for quality assurance in radiation oncology.