Ivan E Dimitrov1,2 and Strahinja Stojadinovic3
1Philips Medical Systems, Dallas, TX, United States, 2Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, 3Radiation Oncology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
Synopsis
Radiation therapy aims to maximize dose delivery
to tumor areas while minimizing the exposure to healthy tissue. Quality control
is required to ensure that the delivered dose closely matches the calculated
dose. We performed a patient-specific
quality assurance for cranial radiotherapy using MRI to visualize delivered
radiation dose. We utilized an anthropomorphic 3D printed head phantom filled
with polymer gel that was scanned before and after exposure to Gamma Knife irradiation.
Irradiation changed the polymerization state of the gel and multi-parametric
(T1, T2, MR Spectroscopy, CEST) quantitative dose-imaging maps were generated that
may lead to optimized patient-specific dose delivery planning.Introduction
Radiation
therapy aims to maximize dose delivery to areas of known tumor presence while
minimizing the exposure to healthy tissue. Invariably, quality control is required
to ensure that the delivered dose distributions closely match the calculated
dose maps. The ability to directly and
quantitatively visualize the 3D dose patterns, per patient, will form the
foundation of this much needed quality control but is currently not technically
feasible.
Here,
we propose the use of the inherent strength of MRI to perform patient-specific,
non-invasive 3D visualization of soft tissues to visualize radiation dose. The multi-parametric
MRI-based dose-imaging maps are quantitative, are easily fused with the
CT-based planning images and can serve as the basis for assuring proper dose
delivery. Specifically, a patient-specific anthropomorphic phantom of the head was
3D printed, based on the initial clinical CT images. The phantom was then
filled with a proprietary MR-compatible gel (RTSafe) that changes its quantitative
MR properties (T1, T2, MR Spectroscopy (MRS), Chemical
Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST)) upon Gamma Knife radiation. The phantom was
scanned in the MR before and after radiation, whereby quantitative 3D T1
and T2 and CEST maps were generated. The change in relaxation
parameters directly reflected the delivered dose, and allowed for quick,
non-invasive 3D mapping of the dose painting. We expect this patient-specific
quality assurance to lead to optimized dose delivery planning that may be
especially important in hypo-fractionated treatments where the tumor anatomical
boundaries may change along the treatment plan and where an ongoing
re-evaluation of the 3D patterns of actual up-to-date accumulated
treatment will be critical to efficient tumor eradication and healthy tissue
sparing.
Methods
An RT-Safe
(Athens, Greece) anthropomorphic phantom was scanned at 3T (Philips Medical
Systems) before and after Gamma Knife irradiation. The phantom consisted of
polymeric gel made of 90% water, 5% gelatin, 1-Vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VP), and
N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamid (BIS). This dosimetric
material mimics the way that human soft tissue interacts with ionizing
radiation and it fills the cranium in the
3D-printed phantom. Contoured ROIs (termed “lesions”) were irradiated using
Gamma Knife (Perfexion, Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) to a dose of 24Gy at 50%
isodose line. These lesions were characterized by measuring their T1 (using a
STEAM with a set of inversion recovery sequences: TR 10s, TE/TM 19/19ms, 12
log-spaced inversion recovery times 10/103/207/322/451/601/777/990/1261/1635/2238/4000
ms, NSA=2; See figure 1 for the placements of the ROI), T2 (using STEAM with a
set of echo times with TR 10s, TE 20/37/56/77/100/127/157/193/237/292/370/500
ms, NSA=2), MR Spectroscopy (water-suppressed STEAM, 10x10x10 mm
3, BW 2000 Hz, TR 3.5s, TE/TM 19/15ms,
NSA 32), and CEST (done at 7T (Philips Medical Systems), single slice 2D FFE, TR/TE 2.9/1.53 ms, 1800ms
saturation with a train of 1.6 uT, 50-ms Hanning pulses, 79 offsets from -6 to
+6 ppm, TR 18s, NSA 1).
Results and Discussion
Quantitative dose evaluation requires
calibration curves to link radiation dose to percentage change in some MR
parameters. Here we used a multi-parametric MRI approach, including T1, T2,
MRS, and CEST to characterize a polymer gel dosimetry phantom. Figure 1A,B
shows a typical T1-w image of the irradiated phantom, with the characteristic
bright “lesions” formed by radiation. Fig.1C,D show a quantitative measurements
of the lession’s T1 and T2. Compared to the normal, non-radiated tissue, these
values were 29.4% and 41.1% shorter, respectively. Assuming linear relationship
between dose and change in relaxation times1, this reflects a 0.0083
R
1-1Gy
-1 and 0.102 R
2-1Gy
-1,
which closely match published values
1. Figure 1E shows the prominent
spectroscopic signature of VP and BIS, and Figure 1F shows a quantitative
MTR-asymmetry plot of the exchangeable protons associated with VP. Since the
rate of exchange will depend highly on the degree of polymerization (and thus
on the level of radiation), it is expected that CEST may provide an additional
quantitative marker for quality assurance.
Conclusion
We have shown that
a multi-parametric MR quantitative evaluation of an antriopomorphic dosimetry
gel produces several markers that can be used to both visualize and quantify
the dose response to Gamma Knife irradiation.
Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.References
1.
Baldock, C et al., Polymer gel dosimetry, Phys. Med. Biol. 55 (2010) R1–R63