Program Information
Dual Focal Spot Dose Painting for Precision Preclinical Radiobiological Investigations
J Stewart1-2*, P Lindsay1-2 , D Jaffray1-3 , (1) Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada, (2) University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, (3) The Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, Toronto, Canada
Presentations
WE-E-BRE-4 Wednesday 1:45PM - 3:45PM Room: Ballroom EPurpose: Recent progress in small animal radiotherapy systems has provided the foundation for delivering the heterogeneous, millimeter scale dose distributions demanded by preclinical radiobiology investigations. Despite advances in preclinical dose planning, delivery of highly heterogeneous dose distributions is constrained by the fixed collimation systems and large x-ray focal spot common in small animal radiotherapy systems. This work proposes a dual focal spot dose optimization and delivery method with a large x-ray focal spot used to deliver homogeneous dose regions and a small focal spot to paint spatially heterogeneous dose regions.
Methods: Two-dimensional dose kernels were measured for a 1 mm circular collimator with radiochromic film at 10 mm depth in a solid water phantom for the small and large x-ray focal spots on a recently developed small animal microirradiator. These kernels were used in an optimization framework which segmented a desired dose distribution into low- and high-spatial frequency regions for delivery by the large and small focal spot, respectively. For each region, the method determined an optimal set of stage positions and beam-on times. The method was demonstrated by optimizing a bullseye pattern consisting of 0.75 mm radius circular target and 0.5 and 1.0 mm wide rings alternating between 0 and 2 Gy.
Results: Compared to a large focal spot technique, the dual focal spot technique improved the optimized dose distribution: 69.2% of the optimized dose was within 0.5 Gy of the intended dose for the large focal spot, compared to 80.6% for the dual focal spot method. The dual focal spot design required 14.0 minutes of optimization, and will require 178.3 minutes for automated delivery.
Conclusion: The dual focal spot optimization and delivery framework is a novel option for delivering conformal and heterogeneous dose distributions at the preclinical level and provides a new experimental option for unique radiobiological investigations.
Funding Support, Disclosures, and Conflict of Interest: Funding Support: this work is supported by funding the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and a Mitacs-accelerate fellowship. Conflict of Interest: Dr. Lindsay and Dr. Jaffray are listed as inventors of the small animal microirradiator described herein. This system has been licensed for commercial development.
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