Secondary Cancer Risk Contributed by Out-Of-Field Radiation during Proton Therapy: Developing a Risk Assessment Model for Pediatric Proton Therapy

During radiation therapy, secondary cancer risk caused by out-of-field radiation doses from IMRT and proton therapy is a hot research topic. It is more crucial to pediatric patient population. Stray neutron induced by proton beam during proton therapy makes this problem more complicated. Taiwan starts to move toward the era of proton therapy and heavy ion therapy. Investigation in this area is waiting for researchers to engage. The purpose of this three-year project is to develop a risk assessment system for pediatrics underwent proton therapy to evaluate their related secondary cancer risk contributed by out-of field secondary radiation. We would like to achieve the above targets through completing four specific aims. First one is to estimate secondary radiation dose of neutron and photon from proton gantry through measurements and Monte Carlo simulation. The results from measurements will be the base to tune the design of proton gantry in simulation code. Secondly, the neutron dose and gamma dose contributed from external or internal radiation will be estimated. Thirdly, we move to pediatric patients. We will estimate the organ-specific equivalent dose, OER or Ht , in pediatrics from external and internal secondary radiation. Finally, we will investigate secondary cancer risk models for pediatrics and estimate secondary cancer risk from Ht. Then, a risk assessment system for pediatric proton therapy will be developed according to the previous study results.

Project ID:PC10507-0617
External Project ID:MOST105-2314-B182-033