On few-view tomographic reconstruction with megavoltage photon beams

Currently portal imaging devices are used to obtain information on patient localization during radiation therapy treatments. Such obtained information is two dimensional in nature, limited to the plane of the captured image. It has been proposed that megavoltage computed tomography images be reconstructed to overcome this limitation. This study explores the feasibility of reconstructing tomographic images from fan-beam projection data acquired with a commercial portal imaging device on a standard radiotherapy linear accelerator. Several CT reconstruction algorithms are examined as to their performance and suitability for applications in radiation therapy verification. The results show that it is possible, using some of the iterative reconstruction techniques, to obtain an image useful for patient localization from only several (< or =10) projection views.