Detalhes do Artigo
[297024] Evaluation of scattered radiation in a radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer using proton therapy compared to IMRT: a study using the Monte Carlo method
Autores: Arthur S. B. Z. Alves, Ariadny T. Machado, Douglas A. A. Xavier, José W. P., Carla J. Santos, Lucio P. Neves, Walmir Belinato, Ana P. Perini, William S. Santos
Resumo: Radiotherapy using proton beams, or proton therapy, represents a major advance in the field of radiotherapy and clinical research. It delivers the prescribed dose in a precise manner and causes little to no damage to nearby structures. The main source of scattered radiation to the rest of the body in this case, comes from the creation of secondary particles, mainly neutrons, due to the high energies used in this beam. Using the Monte Carlo method with an anthropomorphic voxel phantom object, this paper compared the dosimetric data obtained from a prostate cancer treatment simulation using proton therapy, with the results previously obtained from literature for a similar treatment using photon beams. The deposited neutrons doses throughout the whole body were lower than IMRT by about 49%. In the irradiation field and in the organs nearby the tumor, the neutron’s absorbed dose was less than half the photon dose, while in the remaining vital organs, disregarding those in the target area, the dose of neutrons exceeded IMRT by more than threefold. However, this last set of organs away from the fields, still represents less than 10% of the whole-body scattered absorbed dose contribution in IMRT and 16% in proton therapy.