Effect of Changing Phantom Thickness on Helical Radiotherapy Plan: Dosimetric Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of changing phantom thickness on high dose region of interest (HD_ROI) and low dose ROI’s (LW_ROI’s) doses during helical radiotherapy (RT) by utilizing Adaptive RT (ART) technique. Materials and Methods: The cylindrical phantom (CP) is wrapped with different thickness boluses and scanned in the kilovoltage computed tomography (KVCT). HD_ROI and LW_ROI’s were created in contouring system and nine same plans (1.8 Gy/Fr) were made with images of different thicknesses CP. The point dose measurements were performed using ionization chamber in Helical Tomotherapy (HT) treatment machine. For detecting thickness reduction effect, CP was irradiated using bolus-designed plans and it was irradiated using without bolus plan. The opposite of this scenario was applied to determine the thickness increase. KVCT and megavoltage CT (MVCT) images were used for dose comparison. The HT Planned Adaptive Software was used to see the differences in the planning and verification doses at dose volume histograms (DVH). Results: Point dose measurements showed a 4.480% dose increase in 0.5 cm depth reduction for HD_ROI. These differences reached 8.508% in 2 cm depth and 15,279% in 5 cm depth. At the same time, a dose reduction of 0.665% was determined for a 0.5cm depth increase, a dose reduction of 1.771% was determined for a 2 cm depth increase, a dose reduction of 5.202% was determined for a 5 cm depth increase for the HD_ROI. The ART plan results show that the dose changes in the HD_ROI was greater than the LW_ROI’s. Conclusion: Phantom thicknesses change can lead to a serious dose increase or decrease in the HD_ROI and LW_ROI’s.