AAPM Committee Tree

This group will produce 2 documents:

1. A short report aimed at radiation biologists (likely to be published in radiation research) improving standardization of dosimetry in radiation biology experiments (including in vitro and animal studies). The specific charges will be:
   1. Review the relevance of radiation biology results in defining basic knowledge and guiding translational research
   2. Review the uncertainty and need for standardization in dosimetry of radiation biology experiments and the potential impact on basic knowledge and translational research
   3. Provide general guidelines on the impact of treatment type, specimen type, and other irradiation conditions on dosimetry.
   4. Provide recommendations on improving dosimetry standardization, including coordination with physics, and providing irradiation information when reporting results.
2. A task group report aimed at the medical physics community (likely to be published in medical physics) providing guidance to medical physicists on how to manage dosimetry for radiation biology experiments (including calibration and relative dosimetry considerations). This report will focus almost exclusively on non-clinical units. It is expected that clinical units (including linear accelerators and proton and other particle beam lines) will have medical physicist support available, and that medical physicists can access other guidelines (including AAPM documents) on performing dosimetry for these clinical units. Therefore, while clinical units will be discussed in the short report (particularly regarding the benefit of physics dosimetry support), detailed guidance will be provided for non-clinical units. The focus of this report will be on dosimetry. Imaging systems associated with some units will not be discussed. However, concerns such as small field management will be addressed by directing physicists to the IAEA code of practice and TG-155 as available. The specific charges are presented below. While there is overlap in scope with the above document, the focus and depth of these sections will be different in line with the different audience:
   1. Review the relevance of radiation biology results in defining basic knowledge and guiding translational research
   2. Review the status of dosimetry in radiation biology experiments including issues pertaining to calibration, relative dosimetry, and types of experiments
   3. Review cell and animal irradiators (ranging from desk-top units to clinical units and particle beam facilities) in terms of nature of the radiation field and typical applications
   4. Define calibration procedures appropriate for different irradiators (i.e., brief direction to TRS-398, TG-51, and TG-61 for particle beam, linac, and some orthovoltage units). More detailed guidance will be provided for lower energy beams where TG-61 is not appropriate and where manufacturer HVL specifications are suspect.
   5. Define relative dosimetric criteria that should be characterized for the radiation unit: depth dose, uniformity, field size dependence, “patient” scatter factors), and provide dosimeter guidance on conducting such characterizations
   6. Provide recommendations on conducting such dosimetry and collaborating with radiation biologists (coordinated with the content of the short report).