Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1976. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81).

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The effect of low closes of radiation is of primary importance if we wish to understand the basic mechanisms of radiation damage. In vitro experiments performed at clinically relevant doses can also lead to better understanding of radiotherapy protocols and fractionation regimes. The availability of accurate data at low doses can facilitate the examination of survival models which describe dose-effect relationships. Most cellular radiobiology experiments are performed at high doses (3 to 30 Cray). The errors in these experiments, while acceptable at high doses, are too large to allow determination of radiobiological parameters, such as oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) and relative biological effectiveness (RBE), at low doses (0 to 3 Cray). These experiments are limited in the low dose region because we are measuring only the surviving fraction, in a population of predominantly surviving cells, and because there is an uncertainty of 10 to 15% in the number of cells plated. We have developed a technique to assay cell survival at low doses. The exact number of cells plated is determined microscopically. After incubation, the number of killed cells and the number of surviving cells are both determined, by microscopic examination. While extremely labour intensive, this technique yields survival data, in the low dose region, which is much more accurate than the data obtained using classical methods. This technique can be used to measure many radiobiological parameters. We have chosen to examine the effect of oxygen at low doses. Our results clearly demonstrate that, for asynchronous Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells, the radiosensitizing effect of oxygen is reduced at lower doses. A Picker X-ray source (280 kVp, HVL 1.7 mm Cu) was used for these experiments. The choice of a survival model has important implications in the low dose region. The predictions of three different survival models regarding the effect of oxygen at low doses are discussed. This technique can be used to complement the classical "high dose assay" to obtain data that encompasses a large dose range. This will be especially valuable, for example, when attempting to fully describe radiobiological parameters, or when examining survival models. / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Radiation therapy, one of the most common forms of cancer treatment, is continually evolving with the introduction of new technology, more complex treatments and more advanced radiation dose calculations. To ensure the effectiveness and safety of modern radiation therapy, dose measurement tools must improve to accommodate these advances. X-ray computed tomography (CT) polymer gel dosimetry is a unique type of dosimeter that has many advantages and the potential to address some of the challenges in the verification of dose delivery and calculation in radiation therapy. This dissertation investigates the advancement of an x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry system for use in clinical applications and in particular for deformable dose verification. The first part of this work consists of a reproducibility study of an established x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry system in an effort to determine the accuracy and precision of dose measurements made with this system and the feasibility of interbatch and generic calibration. Gel measurements were found to have excellent agreement with Monte Carlo dose calculation when using a generic calibration curve. The excellent dosimetric and spatial accuracy established in this study suggest that this dosimetry system is ideally suited for the measurement of high-dose fractionation treatments such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The second stage was the development and characterization of the first deformable x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry system. This study established the setup reproducibility, deformation characteristics and dose response of the new deformable system. The dose response was found to be similar to that of the non-deformable system with similar dosimetric and spatial accuracy when compared to Monte Carlo dose calculation. The system was also found to have sub-millimetre setup reproducibility and the deformable dosimeter was found to reproducibly deform and relax for external compression of up to 30 mm and over 100 consecutive compressions. This work established several important characteristics of the new deformable dosimetry system and it shows excellent potential for use in the evaluation of deformable dose accumulation algorithms. The final component of this dissertation was the use of the newly developed deformable dosimetry system in the evaluation of a novel deformable dose accumulation algorithm, defDOSXYZ. Gel measurements and defDOSXYZ showed excellent agreement in the case of a static control case and this set a benchmark for deformable dose measurements. Measurements of deformed dose by the gel dosimeter showed significant disagreement with dose deformed by defDOSXYZ and the dosimetric differences were well outside the uncertainties established in the first two studies of this dissertation. The results from this study provided some insight into potential avenues of improvement for both the deformable dose calculation and deformable dose measurements. These results were also the first example of deforming dose measured by an x-ray CT read out gel dosimetry system. Overall, the results in this dissertation represent a significant advancement in x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry and establish its suitability for several clinical applications. / Graduate / 2019-12-06

Two-dimensional transmission dosimetry in radiotherapy has been discussed in the literature for some time as being a potential method for in vivo dosimetry. However, it still remains to become a wide spread practice in radiotherapy clinics. This is most likely due to the variety in radiotherapy treatment sites and the challenges they would present in terms of detection and interpretation at the transmitted dose level. Thus, the full potential and limitations of applying transmission dosimetry in the presence of dosimetry errors still need to be demonstrated. This thesis is a theoretical evaluation of transmission dosimetry using the Pinnacle3 treatment planning system. The accuracy of predicting reliable and accurate absolute transmitted dose maps using the planning system dose algorithm for comparison with measured transmitted dose maps was initially investigated. The resolution in the dose calculations at the transmitted level was then evaluated for rectilinear and curved homogeneous phantoms and rectilinear inhomogeneous phantoms, followed by studies combining both surface curvature and heterogeneities using anthropomorphic phantoms. In order to perform transmitted dose calculations at clinically relevant beam focus-to-transmitted dose plane distances using clinical patient CT data it was first necessary to extend the CT volume. Finally, the thesis explored the efficacy of applying transmission dosimetry in the clinic by simulating realistic dosimetry errors in the planning system using patient treatment plans for a prostate, head and neck, and breast CRT (Conformal Radiotherapy) treatment. Any differences at the transmitted dose level were interpreted and quantified using the gamma formalism. To determine whether the transmitted dose alone was a sufficient indicator of the dosimetry errors, the magnitude in transmission dose differences were compared with those predicted at the midplane of the patient. Dose-Volume Histograms (DVHs) were also used to evaluate the clinical significance of the dose delivery errors on the target volume and surrounding healthy tissue structures. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1339807 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Chemistry and Physics, 2008

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.