Automated verification of 3D-Conformal and IMRT treatment planning using polymer gels

A major stumbling block to the growth of high-tech treatment modalities such as 3D-conformal radiotherapy and DVIRT is the lack of an acceptable methodology to test the agreement between planned and delivered patient dose distributions (1–3). Conventional 1D or 2D radiation dosimetry systems that are used to verify treatment-planning calculations are not capable of efficiently providing the integrated dose information throughout a clinically relevant volume with adequate spatial resolution. Recently BANG©-gels (MGS Research Inc., Guilford, CT) in combination with MRJ have been shown to record and accurately map 3D dose distributions with high spatial resolution and precision (4). In BANG-gels, radiation-induced polymerization of acrylic monomers dissolved in an aqueous gel produces a permanent, self-developing three-dimensional image of dose distributions that can be appreciated visually (see Figure 1) or measured quantitatively by MRJ scanning (5). However, to utilize the full potential of BANG-gel technique, we have developed a software package (Stony Brook Gel Dosimetry Analysis, SBGDA), which provides completely automated verification.