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Metrology for MR guided radiotherapy

Short Name: MRgRT, Project Number: 15HLT08
MRI scanner in laboratory
Coordinator
Jacco de Pooter (VSL)

New standards to enable safe, effective treatment of cancer with emerging MR-guided radiotherapy


Cancer, the leading cause of death in Europe after cardiovascular disease, is responsible for roughly one in five deaths. Radiotherapy, which uses beams of ionising radiation to kill cancerous cells, is one of our most important defences against cancer and is used to treat around half of patients in Europe. One emerging technique, magnetic resonance (MR)-guided radiotherapy, provides real-time images of a patient during treatment, and offers more detailed and higher contrast images for the identification of tumours and soft tissues than conventional techniques. This boosts tumour targeting accuracy, reducing side-effects and increasing survival rates. Accurate radiation dose is crucial to the safe and effective treatment of patients, but radiation transport is strongly affected by the magnetic fields used in MR-guided radiotherapy. This project has developed new standards and measurement methods, adapted for MR-guided radiotherapy, to enable medical physicists to develop safe, accurate treatment plans. This metrological framework supports the clinical implementation of MR-guided radiotherapy, accelerating the rollout of this state-of-the-art treatment.

Links
Project website
Link
Final Report
Publishable Summary
Publications
The effect of magnetic field strength on the response of Gafchromic EBT-3 film
2019

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Commissioning of a water calorimeter as a primary standard for absorbed dose to water in magnetic fields
2019

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Polymer gel-based measurements of the isocenter accuracy in an MR-LINAC
2019

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

Technical Note: Consistency of PTW 30013 and FC 65‐G ion chamber magnetic field correction factors
2019

Medical Physics

A finite element method for the determination of the relative response of ionization chambers in MR-linacs: simulation and experimental validation up to 1.5 T
2019

Physics in Medicine and Biology

Monte Carlo simulations of out-of-field skin dose due to spiralling contaminant electrons in a perpendicular magnetic field
2019

Medical Physics

Compatibility of 3D printing materials and printing techniques with PAGAT gel dosimetry
2019

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Absolute dosimetry with polymer gels—a TLD reference system
2019

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Monte Carlo simulations of out-of-field surface doses due to the electron streaming effect in orthogonal magnetic fields
2019

Physics in Medicine and Biology

Direct measurement of ion chamber correction factors, k<sub>Q</sub> and k<sub>B</sub>, in a 7 MV MRI-linac
2019

Physics in Medicine and Biology

A formalism for reference dosimetry in photon beams in the presence of a magnetic field
2018

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Feasibility of polymer gel-based measurements of radiation isocenter accuracy in magnetic fields
2018

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Ionization chamber correction factors for MR-linacs
2018

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Radiation dosimetry in magnetic fields with Farmer-type ionization chambers: determination of magnetic field correction factors for different magnetic field strengths and field orientations
2017

Physics in Medicine & Biology

First patients treated with a 1.5 T MRI-Linac: clinical proof of concept of a high-precision, high-field MRI guided radiotherapy treatment
2017

Physics in Medicine & Biology

Validation of 4D dose calculation using an independent motion monitoring by the calypso tracking system and 3D polymer gel dosimetry
2017

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

Generation of synthetic CT data using patient specific daily MR image data and image registration
2017

Physics in Medicine and Biology

Participating EURAMET NMIs and DIs
LNE-LNHB (France)
METAS (Switzerland)
NPL (United Kingdom)
PTB (Germany)
VSL (Netherlands)
Other Participants
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (Germany)
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (United Kingdom)
The University of Manchester (United Kingdom)
Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht (Netherlands)