Utilizing acrylic acid polymer hydrogel for 3-D quality assurance in CyberKnife radiotherapy

Dosimetry tools play a crucial role in radiotherapy as they are essential for recording and validating intricate 3-D dose distributions. This research introduces and examines a novel acrylic acid polymer hydrogel (ACAPHG) dosimeter composition designed for 3-D dose verification and quality assurance in the context of radiotherapy treatment. A phantom made of an 80 mm diameter cylindrical glass container was utilized. The phantom contained the hydrogel, which served as the medium for radiation exposure. The water equivalent hydrogel within the phantom was subjected to irradiation by a CyberKnife robotic radiotherapy system. An optical computed tomography (OCT) scanner with sub-millimeter resolution was used to obtain imaging data. The dose distribution of a CyberKnife robotic SRS/SBRT treatment plan for a brain cancer patient was compared to that of the hydrogel's OCT scan using 2-D and 3-D gamma analysis with a criterion of 3% dose difference and 3 mm distance-to-agreement. A gamma pass rate of 94.1% for the 2-D gamma analysis and a pass rate of 99% for the 3-D gamma analysis were calculated within the region at which the treatment planning system data drops to 20% of the maximum dose. The use of the ACAPHG dosimeter in conjunction with the described setup suggests that it has the potential to offer an accurate 3-D verification of complex dose distributions in SRS/SBRT radiotherapy treatments. By employing the ACAPHG dosimeter and utilizing OCT scanning, this dosimeter enables the assessment and validation of intricate dose distributions in these advanced radiotherapy treatments.