Program Information
Developmental Technique for Proton Pencil Beam Measurements: Depth Dose
B Arjomandy*, T Lee , T Schultz , W Hsi , S Park , McLaren Cancer Institute, Flint, MI
Presentations
SU-E-T-443 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit HallPurpose: Measurements of depth dose distribution (DDD) of pencil beam in proton therapy can be challenging and time consuming. We have developed a technique that uses two Bragg peak chambers to expedite these measurements with a high accuracy.
Methods and Material: We used a PTW water tank and two PTW 10.5 cm3 Bragg peak chambers; one as a field chamber and the other as a reference chamber to measure DDDs for 100-250 MeV proton pencil beams. The reference chamber was positioned outside of the water tank upstream with respect to field chamber. We used Geant4 Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) to model the ProTom proton beam to generate DDDs. The MCS generated DDDs were used to account for halo effects of proton pencil beam that are not measureable with Bragg peak chambers. We also used PTW PEAKFINDER to measure DDDs for comparison purpose.
Results: We compared measured and MCS DDDs with Continuous Slowing Down Approximation (CSDA) ranges to verify the range of proton beams that were supplied by the manufacturer. The agreements between all DDD with respect to CSDA were within ±0.5 mm. The WET for Bragg peak chamber for energies between 100-250 MeV was 12.7 ± 0.5 mm. The correction for halo effect was negligible below 150 MeV and was in order of ~5-10% for 150-250 MeV.
Conclusion: Use of Bragg Peak chamber as a reference chamber can facilitate DDD measurements in proton pencil beam with a high accuracy. Some corrections will be required to account for halo effect in case of high energy proton beams due to physical size of chamber.
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