Intensity-modulated proton therapy(IMPT)is becoming essential for proton therapy and is under rapid development.However,for IMPT,the lateral penumbra of the spot-scanning proton beam is still an urgent issue to be sol...Intensity-modulated proton therapy(IMPT)is becoming essential for proton therapy and is under rapid development.However,for IMPT,the lateral penumbra of the spot-scanning proton beam is still an urgent issue to be solved.Patient-specific block collimators(PSBCs),which can block unnecessary doses,play a crucial role in passive scattering delivery technology but are rarely used in spot scanning.One objective of this study is to investigate the lateral penumbra variations of intensity-modulated spot scanning with and without a PSBC.For fields with varying degrees of sharpness and at varying depths in a water phantom,the lateral penumbral widths were calculated using a Monte Carlo-based dose engine from RayStation 6.The results suggest that the lateral penumbral widths can be reduced by more than 30%for uniform target volumes,regardless of whether a range-shifter is used,and that the maximum dose beyond the field edges can be reduced significantly.The results of patient cases show that the doses in organs-at-risk near the edge of the target volume decrease if a PSBC is implemented.This study demonstrates that intensity-modulated spot scanning with a PSBC can effectively reduce the lateral penumbra and block unnecessary doses and is therefore promising for clinical applications in spot-scanning proton therapy.展开更多
基金supported by the Key Program of the 13th Five-Year Plan,the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.KP-2017-24)
文摘Intensity-modulated proton therapy(IMPT)is becoming essential for proton therapy and is under rapid development.However,for IMPT,the lateral penumbra of the spot-scanning proton beam is still an urgent issue to be solved.Patient-specific block collimators(PSBCs),which can block unnecessary doses,play a crucial role in passive scattering delivery technology but are rarely used in spot scanning.One objective of this study is to investigate the lateral penumbra variations of intensity-modulated spot scanning with and without a PSBC.For fields with varying degrees of sharpness and at varying depths in a water phantom,the lateral penumbral widths were calculated using a Monte Carlo-based dose engine from RayStation 6.The results suggest that the lateral penumbral widths can be reduced by more than 30%for uniform target volumes,regardless of whether a range-shifter is used,and that the maximum dose beyond the field edges can be reduced significantly.The results of patient cases show that the doses in organs-at-risk near the edge of the target volume decrease if a PSBC is implemented.This study demonstrates that intensity-modulated spot scanning with a PSBC can effectively reduce the lateral penumbra and block unnecessary doses and is therefore promising for clinical applications in spot-scanning proton therapy.