Pion treatment procedures and verification techniques

Procedures and techniques developed for the negative pi-meson (pion) radiotherapy program at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, Los Alamos, NM, are reviewed and described. A particular pion patient is followed through the entire planning and treatment sequence to describe CT scanning procedures, bolus and collimator and treatment techniques developed to minimize positioning errors (less than 5 mm). Comparison of 2-D and 3-D isodose calculations developed at Los Alamos showed differences of less than 10% attributable to multiple scattering effects and the computational models used. Treatment verification methods using in vivo ion chamber dosimetry generally confirmed the prescribed dose delivery within 10% and using TLD within 18%.