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Updated: Sep 28, 2025
Irradiator Commissioning and Dosimetry for Assessment of LQ α and β Parameters, Radiation Dosing Schema, and in vivo Dose Deposition
Published on: March 11, 2021
A comprehensive and efficient quality assurance program for an image-guided small animal irradiation system
Severin Kampfer1, Manuela A Duda1, Sophie Dobiasch2
1Department of Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine and Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Ismaninger Str. 22, Munich, Germany; Physics Department, Technical University of Munich (TUM), James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748, Garching, Germany.
This study presents a quality assurance program for small animal irradiation systems to ensure reliable preclinical radiotherapy research. The developed guidelines ensure consistent and accurate results, making research comparable across different institutions.
Area of Science:
- Preclinical radiotherapy research
- Medical physics
- Radiation oncology
Background:
- Technical innovations drive preclinical radiotherapy research.
- Maintaining high quality is crucial for research comparability and reliability.
- Standardized protocols and quality assurance programs are needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a guideline for a comprehensive and efficient quality assurance (QA) program for image-guided small animal irradiation systems.
- To test subsystems (imaging, treatment planning, irradiation) and the complete procedure (end-to-end test).
- To ensure geometric accuracy and dosimetric aspects are consistently evaluated.
Main Methods:
- Developed QA program suggestions for a Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP).
- Included proposed testing frequencies (monthly to yearly) and time estimations for each test.
- Evaluated output, energy, motorized parts, geometric alignments, imaging system, treatment planning, and end-to-end tests.
Main Results:
- Stable results with small variations were observed for output, energy, and motorized parts.
- Geometric alignments and motorized components (couch, gantry) demonstrated high stability.
- Imaging system checks yielded stable and good results with the primarily used protocol; treatment planning and end-to-end tests met all requirements.
Conclusions:
- The developed QA program is comprehensive, efficient, and ensures a well-monitored small animal irradiation system.
- The program allows for reliable and comparable preclinical radiotherapy research.
- The mean monthly time commitment for QA checks is less than two hours.
