Program Information
Measurement Evaluation of Skin Dose in Scanning Proton Beam Therapy for Breast Cancer
J Yu*, E Nichols , D Strauss , H Chung , U Langner , K Langen , University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Presentations
SU-F-T-151 (Sunday, July 31, 2016) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose:To measure the skin dose and compare it with the calculated dose from a treatment planning system (TPS) for breast cancer treatment using scanning proton beam therapy (SPBT).
Methods:A single en-face-beam SPBT plan was generated by a commercial TPS for two breast cancer patients. The treatment volumes were the entire breasts (218 cc and 1500 cc) prescribed to 50.4 Gy (RBE) in 28 fractions. A range shifter of 5 cm water equivalent thickness was used. The organ at risk (skin) was defined to be 5 mm thick from the surface. The skin doses were measured in water with an ADCL calibrated parallel plate (PP) chamber. The measured data were compared with the values calculated in the TPS. Skin dose calculations can be subject to uncertainties created by the definition of the external contour and the limitations of the correction based algorithms, such as proton convolution superposition. Hence, the external contours were expanded by 0, 3 mm and 1 cm to include additional pixels for dose calculation. In addition, to examine the effects of the cloth gown on the skin dose, the skin dose measurements were conducted with and without gown.
Results:On average the measured skin dose was 4% higher than the calculated values. At deeper depths, the measured and calculated doses were in better agreement (< 2%). Large discrepancy occur for the dose calculated without external expansion due to volume averaging. The addition of the gown only increased the measured skin dose by 0.4%.
Conclusion:The implemented TPS underestimated the skin dose for breast treatments. Superficial dose calculation without external expansion would result in large errors for SPBT for breast cancer.
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