BACKGROUND The recent spread of positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) poses extremity dosimetry challenges. The question arose whether the radiation dose measured by the ring thermoluminescent dosimeter usually worn on the proximal phalanx (P1) of the index finger measures doses that are representative of the true doses received by the upper extremities of the operators. A p...

This work investigated the suitability of passive dosimeters for reference dosimetry in small fields with acceptable accuracy. Absorbed dose to water rate was determined in nine small radiation fields with diameters between 4 and 35 mm in a Leksell Gamma Knife (LGK) and a modified linear accelerator (linac) for stereotactic radiosurgery treatments. Measurements were made using Gafchromic film (...

UNLABELLED The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a long tradition of supporting development of methodologies for national networks providing quality audits in radiotherapy. A series of co-ordinated research projects (CRPs) has been conducted by the IAEA since 1995 assisting national external audit groups developing national audit programs. The CRP 'Development of Quality Audits for ...

PURPOSE To present experimental dosimetry results for the new IsoSeed I25.S17plus (125)I brachytherapy source, in fulfillment of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine recommendation for, at least one, experimental dosimetry characterization of new low-energy seeds before their clinical implementation. METHODS AND MATERIALS A batch of 100 LiF thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD)-100 ...

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC) has extensive experience with thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) as a quality assurance tool for output and energy monitoring of radiation therapy beams. Over the past 25 years the TLD results of the monitored institutions, commissioning data for TLD readers, the characterization data of lithium fluoride TLD-100 powder and the records...

We present an experimental validation of a kilovoltage (kV) X-ray source characterization model in an anthropomorphic phantom to estimate patient-specific absorbed dose from kV cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging procedures and compare these doses to nominal weighted CT-dose index (CTDIw) dose estimates. We simulated the default Varian on-board imager 1.4 (OBI) default CBCT imaging pro...

Applicators containing metal have been widely used in recent years when applying brachytherapy to patients with cervical cancer. However, the high dose rate (HDR) treatment-planning system (TPS) that is currently used in brachytherapy still assumes that the treatment environment constitutes a homogeneous water medium and does not include a dose correction for the metal material of the applicato...

The more complex delivery techniques required for implementation of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) based on inverse planning optimization have changed the relationship between dose at depth and dose at buildup regions near the surface. Surface buildup dose is dependent on electron contamination primarily from the unblocked view of the flattening filter and secondarily from air and coll...