Neutron-induced second cancer risk estimation in patients under radiotherapy by means of an online in-vivo dosimeter (original) (raw)

Radiotherapy methods have been substantially improving during the last years. Nevertheless, the patients' risk, as consequence of the radiation used in the treatment, keeps being of important concern. In particular, the peripheral dose, usually from photons and neutrons in conventional therapy with linacs, represents an important topic to study. The objective is to provide an adequate radiation protection to the patient, that allow to evaluate the best strategy for treatment and take into account the risk-benefit balance due to the out-of-field dose delivered. Although photon doses have been deeply contemplated, the neutron contamination from high energy photon beams is still a subject of research and discussion. In the present work, we introduce a new digital device that permits real time evaluation of the equivalent dose in organs during any therapeutic session. For this purpose, we have obtained a huge experimental data collection, considering different photon energies, linac...