Physics quality assurance
Introduction This chapter describes the physics quality assurance (QA) program for the proton pencil beam scanning (PBS) gantry of the Hitachi ProBeat machine (Hitachi America, Ltd., Tarrytown, NY) at the…
Gastrointestinal
Introduction Proton beam radiation (PBR) has the potential to improve the therapeutic ratio in the treatment of several gastrointestinal malignancies by decreasing the dose to nontarget critical structures. In general,…
Proton therapy for gynecologic malignancies
Introduction Each year more than 90,000 women are diagnosed with a gynecologic (ovarian, vulvar, vaginal, cervical, uterine, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal) cancer in the United States. Radiotherapy is often…
Proton radiotherapy for breast cancer
Introduction Numerous planning studies demonstrate superior dosimetry for proton radiotherapy compared with photon-based radiotherapy for breast cancers of all stages, even compared with intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Protons can reduce dose to…
Adult central nervous system tumors
Introduction For both primary and metastatic brain tumors, radiation therapy (RT) remains one of the standard treatment modalities. Although RT techniques using photons have greatly improved in recent decades, substantial…
Intensity-modulated proton therapy patient treatments
Introduction Intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) can begin only after a number of other processes have been completed, including simulation and treatment planning. For both proton and photon treatments, radiation oncology…
Immobilization and simulation
Introduction Intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) using pencil beam scanning (PBS) technology is advancing rapidly for delivering precise and more conformal doses to target volumes while sparing surrounding normal and critical…
Clinical commissioning of pencil beam scanning for intensity-modulated proton therapy
Introduction In radiation oncology, “clinical commissioning,” or simply “commissioning,” refers to the process that takes place after a machine has passed acceptance tests but before the first patient can be…
Principles of proton beam therapy
Introduction The potential of physical characteristics of protons for cancer treatments was first recognized by Wilson in 1946. During the following four decades or so, proton accelerators at various physics…
Principles of radiobiology
Introduction Radiotherapy is used as one of the major treatment modalities for patients with malignant diseases at different disease stages. Currently, the most common radiation choice for the majority of…
