Individual radiation therapy patient whole-body phantoms for peripheral dose evaluations: method and specific...

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiotherapy Dosimetry
• Computational Anatomy

Background:

• Radiotherapy (RT) patient-specific dosimetry requires accurate whole-body models.
• Current methods often lack detailed peripheral dose evaluation.
• Enhanced radioprotection strategies are needed for RT patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop patient-adjustable whole-body phantoms (WBPM) for radiotherapy.
• To enable retrospective and prospective peripheral dose evaluations.
• To improve patient radioprotection in radiation therapy.

Main Methods:

• Creation of virtual WBPM for diverse patient demographics and treatment positions.
• Development of a software tool for semi-automatic phantom-to-patient anatomy matching.
• Utilizing auxological data and requiring skilled personnel for anatomical validation.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated feasibility of creating patient-specific WBPM.
• Successfully complemented patient treatment planning images with anatomical models (e.g., prostate cancer case).
• Preliminary results show promise for optimizing radiation protection.

Conclusions:

• Patient-adjustable WBPM are crucial for optimizing radiation protection in radiotherapy.
• This method supports follow-up studies and personalized dosimetry.
• Further research is ongoing to refine WBPM and dose evaluation techniques.