Delivering just the right dose of radiation for cancer patients is a delicate balance in their treatment regime. However, in a new study from UBC Okanagan and Duke University, researchers have developed a system they say may improve the ability to maximize radiation doses to cancer tissues while minimizing exposure to healthy ones.
"Radiation is a significant part of cancer therapy and it's important to make it as effective as possible," says Andrew Jirasek, a UBC Okanagan physics professor and senior author of the study. "The challenge is that radiation, while great at attacking rapidly dividing cancer cells, is also damaging to the surrounding healthy cells. Our solution is to make it easier to see exactly which tissues are getting a radiation dose and how much."
The new system uses a specialized polymer gel used to assess both the 3D location and the dose of the treatment. The team's first step was to validate the spatial accuracy of the gel, known as a dosimeter. They compared the dosimeter readings with traditional radiation treatment planning algorithms and found that the gel dosimeter was accurate in mapping the spatial location of the delivered radiation. Measurements of the radiation dose were also validated and visualized with the dosimeter.
