Graduate Researcher: Blake Benyard
Summary: In radiation therapy imaging dose is practiced prior to and during therapeutic treatment and is an integral part of linear accelerators,described as Image Guided radiation Therapy (IGRT). The implementation of IGRT allows a depiction on how much dose should be delivered to a patient by daily imaging. Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is an imaging modality used for IGRT. Measuring dose outside the primary radiation field is a critical component of radiotherapy and imaging dosimetry. The goal of this project is to quantify in-field dose and peripheral dose (PD) from a kilovoltage cone-beam computed tomography (kV-CBCT) and validate the experimental results with monte carlo simulations. Two imaging protocols, high quality head and low dose head are performed. The comparison of the protocols are used for the purpose of detecting the radiation dose outside the field of radiation that could reach vital organs and other structures, such as a fetus.