Venables, Karen;
(2004)
Radiotherapy dosimetry of the breast : Factors affecting dose to the patient.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D.), University College London (United Kingdom).
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Abstract
The work presented in this thesis developed from the quality assurance for the START trial. This provided a unique opportunity to perform measurements in a breast shaped, soft tissue equivalent phantom in over 40 hospitals, representing 75% of the radiotherapy centres in the UK. A wide range of planning systems using beam library, beam model and convolution based algorithms have been compared. The limitations of current algorithms as applied to breast radiotherapy have been investigated by analysing the results of the START quality assurance programme, performing further measurements of surface dose and setting up of a Monte Carlo system to calculate dose distributions and superficial doses. Measurements in both 2D and 3D breast phantoms indicated that the average measured dose at the centre of the breast was lower than that calculated on the planning system by approximately 2%. Surface dose measurements showed good agreement between measurements and Monte Carlo calculations with values ranging from 6% of the maximum dose for a small field (5cmx5cm) at normal incidence to 37% for a large field (9cmx20cm) at an angle of 75°. Calculation on CT plans with pixel by pixel correction for the breast density indicated that monitor units are lower by an average 3% compared to a bulk density corrected plan assuming a density of 1g.cm-3. The average dose estimated from TLD in build-up caps placed on the patient surface was 0.99 of the prescribed dose. This shows that the underestimation of dose due to the assumption of unit density tissue is partially cancelled by the overestimation of dose by the algorithms. The work showed that simple calculation algorithms can be used for calculation of dose to the breast, however they are less accurate for patients who have undergone a mastectomy and in regions close to inhomogeneities where more complex algorithms are needed.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D. |
| Title: | Radiotherapy dosimetry of the breast : Factors affecting dose to the patient |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Thesis digitised by ProQuest. |
| Keywords: | (UMI)AAIU642659; Pure sciences; Health and environmental sciences; Dosimetry |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10102793 |
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