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Novel dosimetric validation of a commercial CT scanner based deep learning automated contour solution for prostate radiotherapy
Delineation of organs at risk (OARs) is a critical component in modern inverse planned radiotherapy pathways and has two main purposes. Firstly, segmented OARs form a key input to the inverse optimiser, directly influencing the patient ’s radiotherapy dose distribution and hence the treatment’s efficacy. Secondly, delineations are used to report OAR treatment doses, which when compared against established dose tolerances, guide the treating physician on the quality and safety of the plan prior to approval. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - May 7, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Salvatore Berenato, Matthew Williams, Owain Woodley, Christian M öhler, Elin Evans, Anthony E. Millin, Philip A. Wheeler Source Type: research

On the necessity of specialized knowledge-based models for SBRT prostate treatments plans
Knowledge-based planning (KBP) has the potential to improve the quality and automate the planning process of radiotherapy treatments. KBP uses a set of historical cases to build an analytical model that can be applied to predict the DVH of a new case. Previous studies suggest that KBP can provide high-quality plans [1 –7] and can serve as a quality assurance tool, as prospectively adopted in a multicenter phase III randomized clinical trial [8–11]. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - May 2, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Alessandro Scaggion, Samuele Cavinato, Francesca Dusi, Badr El Khouzai, Federica Guida, Chiara Paronetto, Marco Andrea Rossato, Sonia Sapignoli, Anthony St. Aubin Scott, Matteo Sepulcri, Marta Paiusco Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Dose and DNA damage modelling of diffusing alpha-emitters radiation therapy using Geant4
Diffusing alpha-emitters radiation therapy (DaRT) is a brachytherapy technique using α-particles to treat solid tumours. The high linear energy transfer (LET) and short range of α-particles make them good candidates for the targeted treatment of cancer. Treatment planning of DaRT requires a good understanding of the dose from α-particles and the other particles released in the 22 4Ra decay chain. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - May 2, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Laura Ballisat, Chiara De Sio, Lana Beck, Susanna Guatelli, Dousatsu Sakata, Yuyao Shi, Jinyan Duan, Jaap Velthuis, Anatoly Rosenfeld Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Plastic scintillator-based dosimeters for ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) electron radiotherapy
This paper reports the development of dosimeters based on plastic scintillating fibers imaged by a charge-coupled device camera, and their performance evaluation through irradiations with the electron Flash research accelerator located at the Centro Pisano Flash Radiotherapy. The dosimeter prototypes were composed of a piece of plastic scintillating fiber optically coupled to a clear optical fiber which transported the scintillation signal to the readout systems (an imaging system and a photodiode). (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 30, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: E. Ciarrocchi, E. Ravera, A. Cavalieri, M. Celentano, D. Del Sarto, F. Di Martino, S. Linsalata, M. Massa, L. Masturzo, A. Moggi, M. Morrocchi, J.H. Pensavalle, M.G. Bisogni Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Alerts to improve occupational protection during Interventional Radiology. More attention is needed for simple but frequent procedures
Occupational protection should be improved in interventional radiology. Interventionists are aware that complex procedures involving high patient doses may entail high radiation risks for staff. However, in some cases, low patient dose procedures may require more actions to reduce occupational exposure. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 26, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Eliseo Vano, Roberto M. Sanchez Casanueva, Jose M. Fernandez Soto, Jose I. Ten Moron Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Evaluation of radiation detectors for the determination of field output factors in Leksell Gamma Knife dosimetry using 3D printed phantom inserts
The Leksell Gamma Knife ® (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) is a stereotactic radiosurgery instrument enabling the delivery of ablative radiation doses to intracranial targets with submillimetric accuracy. The Leksell Gamma Knife® (LGK) Perfexion™ and Icon™ models utilise 192 60Co sources attached to 8 independently mov eable sectors to deliver dose using one of three collimator sizes – 4 mm, 8 mm and 16 mm, with collimators arranged in rings superior to the target. All individual collimators are aligned to deliver dose to a specific position known as the focus position. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 26, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Ben Perrett, Venkatakrishnan Seshadri, Cosmo Huxley, Sanjay Kumar, Michal Wawrzak, Prabhakar Ramachandran Source Type: research

Advances in Geant4 application in Physics, Medicine and Biology frontiers
The 4th Geant4 International Conference at the Physics-Medicine-Biology Frontier, 24 –26 October 2022, was organized in Napoli, Italy, by the Dipartimento di Fisica E. Pancini, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” (UNINA) and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). The conference was chaired by Giovanni Mettivier (UNINA/INFN, Napoli, Italy), with the support o f three co-chairs Susanna Guatelli (Centre For Medical and Radiation Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia), Sebastien Incerti (LP2i/IN2P3/CNRS/Bordeaux U., Bordeaux, France) and Jeremy M. (Source: Physica Medica: European Jo...
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 26, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: G. Mettivier, S. Guatelli, J. Brown, S. Incerti Tags: Editorial Source Type: research

Impact of data transfer between treatment planning systems on dosimetric parameters
The main goal in radiotherapy is to generate a quality treatment plan that best achieves the clinical prescription. This involves striking a balance between delivering a high dose to the tumor to maximize control and minimizing doses to organs at risk (OARs) to reduce treatment-related toxicity. Treatment planning involves several steps, from simulation to the computation and reporting of the clinical plan. Maintaining consistent quality throughout this process requires close collaboration and communication among clinicians, physicists, and radiation therapy technicians (RTT). (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 25, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Guenda Meffe, Claudio Votta, Gabriele Turco, Elena Chill è, Matteo Nardini, Angela Romano, Giuditta Chiloiro, Giulia Panza, Matteo Galetto, Amedeo Capotosti, Roberto Moretti, Maria Antonietta Gambacorta, Luca Boldrini, Luca Indovina, Lorenzo Placidi Tags: Technical Note Source Type: research

Optimization of CT pulmonary angiography for pulmonary embolism using task-based image quality assessment and diagnostic reference levels: A multicentric study
Computed tomography (CT) pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is currently the standard of care to quickly and accurately diagnose pulmonary embolism (PE) [1]. The number of CTPA examinations has considerably increased in the last fifteen years [2,3]. In Switzerland, a recent survey showed that despite the increased number of CT examinations, the effective dose has decreased due to efforts to optimize clinical protocols [2]. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 24, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Ana ïs Viry, Veronika Vitzthum, Pascal Monnin, Julie Bize, David Rotzinger, Damien Racine Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Evaluation of safety margins for cone beam CT-based adaptive prostate radiotherapy
External beam radiotherapy treatment delivery entails uncertainties [1,2] that can affect the coverage of the target and therefore the treatment outcome [3,4]. In order to account for them, a margin is added to the clinical target volumes (CTV) to create planning target volumes (PTV). This margin depends on the uncertainties that we are dealing with, and can be computed using safety margin recipes, for instance the so-called Van Herk formula [5]. This recipe is based on the separation of systematic uncertainties, that affect the treatment as a whole, and the random uncertainties, that affect each fraction independently. (S...
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 24, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Florian Dupont, David Dechambre, Edmond Sterpin Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Optimized scoring of end-to-end dosimetry audits for passive motion management – A simulation study using the IROC thorax phantom
Respiratory motion management is a standard feature of modern radiation therapy (RT) to thoracic and abdominal treatment sites in developed countries [1 –3]. Recent survey data have indicated that passive motion management techniques (including both the internal target volume (ITV) [4] and mid-ventilation [5] approaches) are by far the most prevalently used, most likely due to the now widespread availability of respiratory-correlated planning CT ( 4DCT) [2,3]. Implementing passive motion management in lung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in particular is supported by evidence gathered in randomized clinical tr...
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 23, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Alex Burton, Mathieu Gaudreault, Nicholas Hardcastle, Jessica Lye, Sabeena Beveridge, Stephen F. Kry, Rick Franich Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Heterogeneous PSMA ligand uptake inside parotid glands
Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging procedure primarily used for detecting prostate cancer [1], which quantifies the expression of the PSMA using radiolabeled PSMA ligands. The PSMA is a type II integral membrane protein expressed in all forms of prostate tissue, including cancerous tissue [2], with expression levels being found to increase with the stage and grade of tumours [3,4,5]. PSMA radioligands also accumulate in other body regions such as the major salivary and lacrimal glands [6,7,8], by a process postulated to be at-least partially unrelated to PSMA-mediated...
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 23, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Caleb M. Sample, Carlos Uribe, Arman Rahmim, Fran çois Bénard, Jonn Wu, Haley Clark Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

A deep learning-based method for the prediction of temporal lobe injury in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Radiotherapy (RT) is the primary treatment modality for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and demonstrates a satisfactory 5-year overall survival [1]. However, the emergence of radiation-induced complications or late RT toxicities cannot be overlooked [2]. Temporal lobe injury (TLI) induced by radiotherapy is a severe late sequela that typically manifests 6 –47 months post-treatment, leading to symptoms such as dizziness, memory loss, personality changes, cognitive impairment, temporal lobe epilepsy, or necrosis. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 22, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Wenting Ren, Bin Liang, Chao Sun, Runye Wu, Kuo Men, Huan Chen, Xin Feng, Lu Hou, Fei Han, Junlin Yi, Jianrong Dai Tags: Original paper Source Type: research

Uncertainties in ocular proton planning and their impact on required margins
Ocular proton therapy (OPT) for uveal melanoma dates back to 1975 at the Harvard Cylcotron Laboratory and up to date more than 45,000 patients have been treated worldwide with exceptional success rates [1]. Although technical improvements occurred mainly with respect to treatment planning and imaging, the general concept has stayed more or less the same: a geometric eye model is constructed and the positioning of the target relative to the beam isocenter is achieved by means of orthogonal X-rays, which show the radio-opaque tantalum markers sutured to the outer eyeball. (Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics)
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 21, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: J örg Wulff, Benjamin Koska, Dalia Ahmad Khalil, Ronald Richter, Claus Maximilian Bäcker, Christian Bäumer, Andreas Foerster, Nikolaos E. Bechrakis, Beate Timmermann Source Type: research

Development of novel low-cost readout electronics for large field-of-view gamma camera detectors
Given the extensive use of gamma cameras as a medical diagnostic instrument for characterizing the biodistribution of gamma-emitting radiopharmaceuticals administered to patients [1 –3], significant research was carried out to improve the performance of gamma cameras [4]. In a gamma camera, first the gamma rays emitted from the patient’s body are collimated using a collimator, subsequently interacting with a monolithic scintillation crystal (commonly used NaI(Tl)). The prod uced light is converted to a signal by an array of large area photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) located on the opposite side of the crystal. (Source: Ph...
Source: Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics - April 19, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Aram Radnia, Amirhossein Alikhani, Behnoosh Teimourian, Mahyar Yousef Nejad, Mohammad Hossein Farahani, Fakhereh Pashaei, Arman Rahmim, Habib Zaidi, Mohammad Reza Ay Source Type: research