This research aims to develop a tissue-mimicking material and produce a 3D gelatin that has density of approximately a human lung, which is in the ranges of (0.25 – 0.35) g/cm3. Tissue equivalent models are important in order to study the radiation dose planned for patients. To achieve the desired density of a human tissue, different types of gelatin were whisked for 300 seconds using a typical hand mixer. The mechanical properties of the gelatin mixtures, standard and foamed, were evaluated by applying different forces. The mechanical properties for the gels were measured using an indentation technique, which showed that the gels act as elastic materials. The mechanical properties of the foams were also evaluated. Mixtures that contained 300 bloom gelatin, glycerol, and sorbitol, were whisked for 60, 180, 300 seconds to achieve different densities evaluated by CT imaging. The density of the180 - and 300 - seconds gelatin foams were found to be 0.33 ± 0.16 and 0.33  0.052 g/cm3, respectively, which is similar to the human lung density. Finally, FXO gel sheets and the FXO foam sheets were irradiated and the radiosensitivity quantified by measuring transmission using a spectrometer. The change in the attenuation coefficient was linear with dose. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

In radiation therapy, gel dosimetry is used to measure radiation doses for treatment verification. Gel dosimeters have the ability to record dose information in three dimensions. The objective of this thesis was to fabricate a transparent cryogel radiochromic dosimeter with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as the gelling agent. A transparent dosimeter may be analyzed using an optical read out technique, which is desirable. PVA cryogels can be made transparent by adding dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Measurements of dose response were performed and various parameters were adjusted, including: numbers of freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs); concentrations of PVA; DMSO concentration. The measured absorption coefficient increased linearly with dose up to approximately 10 Gy. The sensitivity was increased for higher PVA concentrations, larger numbers of FTCs, and less DMSO. The resulting dosimeter was stable and showed no significant dose rate or photon energy dependence. The cryogels were later formed into 5 mm thick films and used as a tool for performing in vivo dosimetry. The dose response of the radiochromic bolus was characterized by irradiating it on a flat surface at different gantry angles. The dose measured in the bolus was approximately 0.80 of the dose measured by Gafchromic film at the skin surface, taking the obliquity into account. IMRT treatments were delivered to a RANDO phantom. The radiochromic bolus was used to measure skin surface dose in two dimensions at various locations. The 0.80 factor was used to calibrate the bolus, which was then compared to an accompanying film measurement. Good agreement was observed between the measurements (>95% gamma pass rate), suggesting the radiochromic bolus may be suitable for in vivo applications. The radiochromic bolus was then used to evaluate errors associated with the breath hold technique often used with left chest wall tangential irradiation. Treatment plan incorporating the radiochromic bolus was delivered at the planned position and shifted anterior-posteriorly (A/P) up to 5 mm. Large discrepancies from the planned two dimensional skin surface distribution were observed for shifts as small as 3 mm in the A/P direction. The study demonstrated that the cryogel was sensitive to small positioning uncertainties for chest wall irradiations, potentially allowing for the detection of clinically relevant errors. Other potential formulations of PVA-based radiochromic cryogels are discussed briefly as avenues to future research projects. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Radiotherapy is used in many clinics to deliver a sufficient and uniform dose to the cancerous tumours while the dose to normal tissues is minimized. However, there is a possibility of missing the target volume due to patient set up/motion errors, or any fluctuation in treatment delivery. Therefore, accurate dose verification tools are essential to evaluate the delivered dose distribution of the designed treatment plan under realistic treatment conditions.</p> <p>Current research is focused on developing 3D dose verification tools to record the complex dose distributions for quality assurance purposes and the evaluation of new treatment techniques. New and novel materials and read-out techniques suitable for use in hospitals are desirable. The objective of this research is to fabricate a transparent radiochromic gel dosimeter that may be used as quality assurance tool. Also, the fabricated gel must be analyzed using a simple optical read-out technique.</p> <p>Gel dosimeters are gels that undergo some chemical changes upon irradiation as a function of absorbed dose. The absorbed dose may be recorded in three dimensions depending on the type of gel dosimeter. Radiochromic gels are dosimeters that change colour upon irradiation. A radiosensitive dye, leucomalachite green (LMG) is dissolved in a matrix material to record the dose distribution in 3D. LMG changes its colour upon irradiation, and has an absorbance band of 629nm.</p> <p>In this research two different matrix materials were investigated: poly (vinyl alcohol) and gelatin. PVA was studied as the primary agent due to its adjustable mechanical strength and high transparency. PVA has also been studied to have a low diffusion rate when it was used as the matrix material in Fricke gel dosimeters [41]. Even though PVA had all the desired characteristics, fabricating a PVA based radiochromic dosimeter was not successful. Consequently, gelatin was used as the matrix material to fabricate a gelatin-based radiochromic dosimeter.</p> <p>Using gelatin, highly transparent radiosensitive gels were successfully fabricated. The absorbencies of the irradiated gels were measured as a function of absorbed dose, using a 1D set up. After, the gels were formed into 5mm thick films and used as two-dimensional dose verification tools. The relationship between absorbance and absorbed dose for 1D measurement was obtained to be 0.00241± 0.00004 , and 0.0022 ± 0.00007 for 2D gels scaled to a thickness of 1 cm.</p> <p>In all of the experiments the absorbance-dose relationships were similar in slopes, but there was an offset between different batches. The offset was 20% between the different experiments. Moreover, there was less than 5% error associated with the physical set up; the major source of error was due to the production and handling of the mixture, possibly due to the effects of inconsistent heating and UV light exposure.</p> <p>The 2D gels were used to verify the dose distribution for the purpose of quality assurance. Six different complicated beams were delivered to the gels and their dose distributions were compared to their respective Pinnacle Calculated Planar (PCP) dose maps. The difference was found to be about 35% at worst; however, this error may be reduced by utilizing more sophisticated data processing methods. Nevertheless, the images were quite similar above 20Gy. Furthermore, the dose distributions recorded by the gels are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the (PCP) dose map. Although the fabricated gel dosimeters show some promise as future tools for quality assurance purposes, they must go through many more stages of research to be used clinically.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)