Proton radiography with a commercial range telescope detector using dedicated post processing methods.

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiological Imaging
• Proton Therapy

Background:

• Proton transmission imaging measures water equivalent thickness (WET) using residual proton energy.
• Clinical application requires high WET accuracy, low patient dose, and workflow integration.
• Current methods need optimization for routine clinical use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of achieving high WET accuracy in proton imaging with a simplified experimental setup.
• To develop and validate post-processing methods for enhancing WET accuracy.
• To evaluate the performance of proton imaging for clinical integration.

Main Methods:

• Experiments conducted at Institut Curie-Proton therapy center using a commercial range telescope.
• Development and application of dedicated post-processing algorithms for WET estimation.
• WET accuracy assessment using CIRS electron density and homogeneous step phantoms.

Main Results:

• Achieved WET accuracy within 0.2-0.5 mm compared to reference phantoms.
• Investigated a minimum dose of 10 mGy per acquisition, with potential for further reduction.
• Demonstrated that proton radiography can achieve good WET accuracy with minimal experimental effort.

Conclusions:

• Proton transmission imaging, enhanced by dedicated post-processing, provides high WET accuracy.
• The simplified experimental approach facilitates integration into clinical workflows.
• This technique shows promise for routine clinical application in proton therapy.