EURADOS STRATEGIC RESEARCH AGENDA 2020: VISION FOR THE DOSIMETRY OF IONISING RADIATION

Since 2012, the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) has developed its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), which contributes to the identification of future research needs in radiation dosimetry in Europe. Continued scientific developments in this field necessitate regular updates and, consequently, this paper summarises the latest revision of the SRA, with input regarding the state of the art and vision for the future contributed by EURADOS Working Groups and through a stakeholder workshop. Five visions define key issues in dosimetry research that are considered important over at least the next decade. They include scientific objectives and developments in (i) updated fundamental dose concepts and quantities, (ii) improved radiation risk estimates deduced from epidemiological cohorts, (iii) efficient dose assessment for radiological emergencies, (iv) integrated personalised dosimetry in medical applications and (v) improved radiation protection of workers and the public. This SRA will be used as a guideline for future activities of EURADOS Working Groups but can also be used as guidance for research in radiation dosimetry by the wider community. It will also be used as input for a general European research roadmap for radiation protection, following similar previous contributions to the European Joint Programme for the Integration of Radiation Protection Research, under the Horizon 2020 programme (CONCERT). The full version of the SRA is available as a EURADOS report (www.eurados.org).

Characterization of passive dosimeters in proton pencil beam scanning - A EURADOS intercomparison for mailed dosimetry audits in proton therapy centres

The lack of mailed dosimetry audits of proton therapy centres in Europe has encouraged researchers of EURADOS Working Group 9 (WG9) to compare response of several existing passive detector systems in therapeutic pencil beam scanning. Alanine Electron Paramagnetic Resonance dosimetry systems from 3 different institutes (ISS, Italy; UH, Belgium and IFJ PAN, Poland), ^natLiF:Mg, Ti (MTS-N) and ^natLiF:Mg, Cu, P (MCP-N) thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs), GD-352M radiophotoluminescent glass dosimeters (RPLGDs) and Al₂O₃:C optically stimulated dosimeters (OSLDs) were evaluate. Dosimeter repeatability, batch reproducibility and response in therapeutic Pencil Beam Scanning were verified for implementation as mail auditing system. Alanine detectors demonstrated the lowest linear energy transfer (LET) dependence with an agreement between measured and treatment planning system (TPS) dose below 1%. The OSLDs measured on average a 6.3% lower dose compared to TPS calculation, with no significant difference between varying modulations and ranges. Both GD-352M and MCP-N measured a lower dose than the TPS and luminescent response was dependent on the LET of the therapeutic proton beam. Thermoluminescent response of MTS-N was also found to be dependent on the LET and a higher dose than TPS was measured with the most pronounced increase of 11%. As alanine detectors are characterized by the lowest energy dependence for different parameters of therapeutic pencil beam scanning they are suitable candidates for mail auditing in proton therapy. The response of luminescence detector systems have shown promises even though more careful calibration and corrections are needed for its implementation as part of a mailed dosimetry audit system.

Out-of-field doses for scanning proton radiotherapy of shallowly located paediatric tumours-a comparison of range shifter and 3D printed compensator

The lowest possible energy of proton scanning beam in cyclotron proton therapy facilities is typically between 60 and 100 MeV. Treatment of superficial lesions requires a pre-absorber to deliver doses to shallower volumes. In most of the cases a range shifter (RS) is used, but as an alternative solution, a patient-specific 3D printed proton beam compensator (BC) can be applied. A BC enables further reduction of the air gap and consequently reduction of beam scattering. Such pre-absorbers are additional sources of secondary radiation. The aim of this work was the comparison of RS and BC with respect to out-of-field doses for a simulated treatment of superficial paediatric brain tumours. EURADOS WG9 performed comparative measurements of scattered radiation in the Proteus C-235 IBA facility (Cyclotron Centre Bronowice at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, CCB IFJ PAN, Kraków, Poland) using two anthropomorphic phantoms-5 and 10 yr old-for a superficial target in the brain. Both active detectors located inside the therapy room, and passive detectors placed inside the phantoms were used. Measurements were supplemented by Monte Carlo simulation of the radiation transport. For the applied 3D printed pre-absorbers, out-of-field doses from both secondary photons and neutrons were lower than for RS. Measurements with active environmental dosimeters at five positions inside the therapy room indicated that the RS/BC ratio of the out-of-field dose was also higher than one, with a maximum of 1.7. Photon dose inside phantoms leads to higher out-of-field doses for RS than BC to almost all organs with the highest RS/BC ratio 12.5 and 13.2 for breasts for 5 and 10 yr old phantoms, respectively. For organs closest to the isocentre such as the thyroid, neutron doses were lower for BC than RS due to neutrons moderation in the target volume, but for more distant organs like bladder-conversely-lower doses for RS than BC were observed. The use of 3D printed BC as the pre-absorber placed in the near vicinity of patient in the treatment of superficial tumours does not result in the increase of secondary radiation compared to the treatment with RS, placed far from the patient.

EURADOS education and training activities

This paper provides a summary of the Education and Training (E&T) activities that have been developed and organised by the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) in recent years and in the case of Training Courses over the last decade. These E&T actions include short duration Training Courses on well-established topics organised within the activity of EURADOS Working Groups (WGs), or one-day events integrated in the EURADOS Annual Meeting (workshops, winter schools, the intercomparison participants' sessions and the learning network, among others). Moreover, EURADOS has recently established a Young Scientist Grant and a Young Scientist Award. The Grant supports young scientists by encouraging them to perform research projects at other laboratories of the EURADOS network. The Award is given in recognition of excellent work developed within the WGs' work programme. Additionally, EURADOS supports the dissemination of knowledge in radiation dosimetry by promoting and endorsing conferences such as the individual monitoring (IM) series, the neutron and ion dosimetry symposia (NEUDOS) and contributions to E&T sessions at specific events.

CALIBRATION OF GAFCHROMIC EBT3 FILM FOR DOSIMETRY OF SCANNING PROTON PENCIL BEAM (PBS)

Gafchromic EBT3 films are applied in proton radiotherapy for 2D dose mapping because they demonstrate spatial resolution well below 1 mm. However, the film response must be corrected in order to reach the accuracy of dose measurements required for the clinical use. The in-house developed AnalyseGafchromic software allows to analyze and correct the measured response using triple channel dose calibration, statistical scan-to-scan fluctuations as well as experimentally determined dose and LET dependence. Finally, the optimized protocol for evaluation of response of Gafchromic EBT3 films was applied to determine 30 × 40 cm2 dose profiles of the scanning therapy unit at the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice, CCB in Krakow, Poland.

GEOMETRICAL EFFICIENCY OF PLANE-PARALLEL IONIZATION CHAMBERS IN PROTON SCANNING BEAM

For commissioning of a proton therapy unit depth dose distributions must be determined and introduced into the Treatment Planning System. In pencil beam scanning (PBS) technique, integral depth dose (IDD) acquisition should be performed with detector large enough to ensure entire beam laterally broadened by scattered and secondary contributions. The purpose of this article is to quantify, using measurements and Monte Carlo transport calculations, the ionization chamber's (IC) geometrical efficiency versus the chamber radius and proton beam energy. The geometrical efficiency of 0.99 was determined for energies up to 160 and 190 MeV for 4.08 and 6 cm radius IC. Much lower geometrical efficiency was obtained for the energy of 226.08 MeV and results in charge loss of 5.8 and 3.6%, respectively. Relative IDD differences between IC 4.08 and 6 cm in radius increase with proton energy and reach 2.4% at the mid-range depth for 226.08 MeV.

COMPARISON OF RESPONSE OF PASSIVE DOSIMETRY SYSTEMS IN SCANNING PROTON RADIOTHERAPY-A STUDY USING PAEDIATRIC ANTHROPOMORPHIC PHANTOMS

Proton beam therapy has advantages in comparison to conventional photon radiotherapy due to the physical properties of proton beams (e.g. sharp distal fall off, adjustable range and modulation). In proton therapy, there is the possibility of sparing healthy tissue close to the target volume. This is especially important when tumours are located next to critical organs and while treating cancer in paediatric patients. On the other hand, the interactions of protons with matter result in the production of secondary radiation, mostly neutrons and gamma radiation, which deposit their energy at a distance from the target. The aim of this study was to compare the response of different passive dosimetry systems in mixed radiation field induced by proton pencil beam inside anthropomorphic phantoms representing 5 and 10 years old children. Doses were measured in different organs with thermoluminescent (MTS-7, MTS-6 and MCP-N), radiophotoluminescent (GD-352 M and GD-302M), bubble and poly-allyl-diglycol carbonate (PADC) track detectors. Results show that RPL detectors are the less sensitive for neutrons than LiF TLDs and can be applied for in-phantom dosimetry of gamma component. Neutron doses determined using track detectors, bubble detectors and pairs of MTS-7/MTS-6 are consistent within the uncertainty range. This is the first study dealing with measurements on child anthropomorphic phantoms irradiated by a pencil scanning beam technique.

Dose distribution of secondary radiation in a water phantom for a proton pencil beam-EURADOS WG9 intercomparison exercise

Systematic 3D mapping of out-of-field doses induced by a therapeutic proton pencil scanning beam in a 300  ×  300  ×  600 mm³ water phantom was performed using a set of thermoluminescence detectors (TLDs): MTS-7 (⁷LiF:Mg,Ti), MTS-6 (⁶LiF:Mg,Ti), MTS-N (^natLiF:Mg,Ti) and TLD-700 (⁷LiF:Mg,Ti), radiophotoluminescent (RPL) detectors GD-352M and GD-302M, and polyallyldiglycol carbonate (PADC)-based (C₁₂H₁₈O₇) track-etched detectors. Neutron and gamma-ray doses, as well as linear energy transfer distributions, were experimentally determined at 200 points within the phantom. In parallel, the Geant4 Monte Carlo code was applied to calculate neutron and gamma radiation spectra at the position of each detector. For the cubic proton target volume of 100  ×  100  ×  100 mm³ (spread out Bragg peak with a modulation of 100 mm) the scattered photon doses along the main axis of the phantom perpendicular to the primary beam were approximately 0.5 mGy Gy^-1 at a distance of 100 mm and 0.02 mGy Gy^-1 at 300 mm from the center of the target. For the neutrons, the corresponding values of dose equivalent were found to be ~0.7 and ~0.06 mSv Gy^-1, respectively. The measured neutron doses were comparable with the out-of-field neutron doses from a similar experiment with 20 MV x-rays, whereas photon doses for the scanning proton beam were up to three orders of magnitude lower.

EURADOS strategic research agenda: vision for dosimetry of ionising radiation

Since autumn 2012, the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) has been developing its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), which is intended to contribute to the identification of future research needs in radiation dosimetry in Europe. The present article summarises-based on input from EURADOS Working Groups (WGs) and Voting Members-five visions in dosimetry and defines key issues in dosimetry research that are considered important for the next decades. The five visions include scientific developments required towards (a) updated fundamental dose concepts and quantities, (b) improved radiation risk estimates deduced from epidemiological cohorts, (c) efficient dose assessment for radiological emergencies, (d) integrated personalised dosimetry in medical applications and (e) improved radiation protection of workers and the public. The SRA of EURADOS will be used as a guideline for future activities of the EURADOS WGs. A detailed version of the SRA can be downloaded as a EURADOS report from the EURADOS website (www.eurados.org).

A numerical method to optimise the spatial dose distribution in carbon ion radiotherapy planning

The authors describe a numerical algorithm to optimise the entrance spectra of a composition of pristine carbon ion beams which delivers a pre-assumed dose-depth profile over a given depth range within the spread-out Bragg peak. The physical beam transport model is based on tabularised data generated using the SHIELD-HIT10A Monte-Carlo code. Depth-dose profile optimisation is achieved by minimising the deviation from the pre-assumed profile evaluated on a regular grid of points over a given depth range. This multi-dimensional minimisation problem is solved using the L-BFGS-B algorithm, with parallel processing support. Another multi-dimensional interpolation algorithm is used to calculate at given beam depths the cumulative energy-fluence spectra for primary and secondary ions in the optimised beam composition. Knowledge of such energy-fluence spectra for each ion is required by the mixed-field calculation of Katz's cellular Track Structure Theory (TST) that predicts the resulting depth-survival profile. The optimisation algorithm and the TST mixed-field calculation are essential tools in the development of a one-dimensional kernel of a carbon ion therapy planning system. All codes used in the work are generally accessible within the libamtrack open source platform.

A TPS kernel for calculating survival vs. depth: distributions in a carbon radiotherapy beam, based on Katz's cellular Track Structure Theory

An algorithm was developed of a treatment planning system (TPS) kernel for carbon radiotherapy in which Katz's Track Structure Theory of cellular survival (TST) is applied as its radiobiology component. The physical beam model is based on available tabularised data, prepared by Monte Carlo simulations of a set of pristine carbon beams of different input energies. An optimisation tool developed for this purpose is used to find the composition of pristine carbon beams of input energies and fluences which delivers a pre-selected depth-dose distribution profile over the spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) region. Using an extrapolation algorithm, energy-fluence spectra of the primary carbon ions and of all their secondary fragments are obtained over regular steps of beam depths. To obtain survival vs. depth distributions, the TST calculation is applied to the energy-fluence spectra of the mixed field of primary ions and of their secondary products at the given beam depths. Katz's TST offers a unique analytical and quantitative prediction of cell survival in such mixed ion fields. By optimising the pristine beam composition to a published depth-dose profile over the SOBP region of a carbon beam and using TST model parameters representing the survival of CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary) cells in vitro, it was possible to satisfactorily reproduce a published data set of CHO cell survival vs. depth measurements after carbon ion irradiation. The authors also show by a TST calculation that 'biological dose' is neither linear nor additive.

Energy response of different types of RADOS personal dosemeters with MTS-N (LiF:Mg,Ti) and MCP-N (LiF:Mg,Cu,P) TL detectors

The photon energy response of different RADOS (Mirion Technologies) personal dosemeters with MTS-N (LiF:Mg,Ti) and MCP-N (LiF:Mg,Cu,P) thermoluminescence (TL) detectors was investigated. Three types of badges were applied. The irradiation with reference photon radiation qualities N (the narrow spectrum series), and S-Cs and S-Co nuclide radiation qualities, specified in ISO 4037 [International Organization for Standardization (ISO). X and gamma reference radiations for calibrating dosemeters and doserate meters and for determining their response as a function of photon energy. ISO 4037. Part 1-4 (1999)], in the energy range of 16-1250 keV, were performed at the Dosimetry Laboratory Seibersdorf. The results demonstrated that a readout of a single MTS-N or MCP-N detector under the Al filter can be used to determine Hp(10) according to requirements of IEC 61066 [International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Thermoluminescence dosimetry systems for personal and environmental monitoring. International Standard IEC 61066 (2006)] for TL systems for personal dosimetry. The new RADOS badge with the experimental type of a holder (i.e. Cu/Al filters) is a very good tool for identifying the radiation quality (photon energy).

The application of amorphous track models to study cell survival in heavy ions beams

In a study of amorphous track models, in the local effect model (LEM), the Kellerer algorithm was used, which folds radial dose distributions from different ion tracks. In representative set of 10 experimental cell survival curves of normal human skin fibroblast cells irradiated with carbon ions, the method that applies the Kellerer algorithm was found to be more accurate and 10(4) times faster than the usual Monte Carlo summation method based on a regular grid.