Illuminating the future of radiotherapy: 3D printed scintillation detectors

照亮放射治疗的未来：3D 打印闪烁探测器

• 批准号: RGPIN-2021-03650
• 负责人: Monajemi, ThalatTheresa
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: Dalhousie University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=764435
• 关键词: Illuminating; future; radiotherapy; 3D; printed

Plastic scintillators are near-ideal radiation detectors. They produce light when exposed to radiation, and the light can be collected with an optical reader. Their use is common in radiation therapy and particle physics for high energy x-ray or particle detections. To date, these detectors have not reached their full potential partly because of the limitations in shape and design. Plastic scintillators are available commercially in standard forms such as slabs, cubes, cylinders, spheres, or fibres. Production of good quality scintillators is a time-consuming process that requires specialized expertise, space, and equipment. Typically, a user would have to apply the scintillators as purchased. If customized shapes or light-output characteristics are desired, the purchase could be prohibitively costly.  Recent advances in 3D printing technology have resulted in producing a myriad of relatively low-cost consumer-grade printers. 3D printing is ideal for the rapid manufacturing of unique end products or small batches of products with bespoke or complex geometries. The users can rapidly create complex shapes that would otherwise be difficult, costly, and time-consuming to produce by traditional techniques. We aim to apply accessible 3D printing solutions to delivering high-quality and affordable plastic scintillators with custom-designed shape and light-output characteristics. Our immediate application is to use plastic scintillators for reading patients' radiation dose during radiation therapy treatments, the so-called in-vivo dose. Radiation therapy treatments are carefully planned, checked, and verified before the patient comes to the clinic. Still, once the treatment begins, there is most often no direct monitoring of the patient's radiation dose, which can be variable with the patient position, anatomical change, or inadvertent deviations in the treatment unit's performance. We want to integrate 3D printed scintillators into 3D printed devices worn by patients during treatments and read the light produced by radiation. Such routine in-vivo measurements would prevent accidents in radiation therapy, ensure that the intended dose is delivered, and, over time, serve to provide clinicians with invaluable information about the relationships between the outcomes and actual doses. The research and development in this project are also highly valuable in other fields besides medicine. This new technique could open up new possibilities for the field of particle detection. A successful 3D-printed plastic scintillator detector could pave the way for broader use of this technology in detector building, which could shake up the field of high-energy physics where large-scale custom-designed detectors have been prohibitively expensive for most applications. Such accessible large-scale and custom-designed detectors have immediate applications in detection of neutrinos.

塑料闪烁体是近乎理想的辐射探测器，它们在暴露于辐射时会产生光，并且迄今为止，它们在放射治疗和粒子物理学中很常见，用于高能 X 射线或粒子检测。 ，这些探测器尚未充分发挥其潜力，部分原因在于形状和设计的限制。商业上可以使用标准形式的塑料闪烁体，例如板状、立方体、圆柱体、球体或纤维。这是一个耗时的过程，需要专门的专业知识、空间和设备。通常，如果需要定制形状或光输出特性，用户必须使用购买的闪烁体，而 3D 打印的最新进展可能会非常昂贵。 3D 打印技术已导致生产出大量相对低成本的消费级打印机，非常适合快速制造具有定制或复杂几何形状的独特最终产品或小批量产品。是通过传统技术生产难度大、成本高且耗时，我们的目标是应用易于使用的 3D 打印解决方案来提供具有定制设计形状和光输出特性的高质量且经济实惠的塑料闪烁体。为了在放射治疗期间读取患者的放射剂量，在患者来到诊所之前，通常会仔细计划、检查和验证所谓的体内放射剂量。没有直接监控患者的辐射剂量可能会随着患者位置、解剖结构的变化或治疗装置性能的无意偏差而变化。我们希望将 3D 打印闪烁体集成到患者在治疗期间佩戴的 3D 打印设备中，并读取此类辐射产生的光。常规体内测量将防止放射治疗中的事故，确保提供预期剂量，并且随着时间的推移，可以为上级提供有关结果与实际剂量之间关系的宝贵信息。除了医学之外，这项新技术还可以为粒子探测领域开辟新的可能性，成功的 3D 打印塑料闪烁体探测器可以为该技术在探测器制造中的更广泛应用铺平道路，这可能会带来震动。在高能物理领域，大规模定制设计的探测器对于大多数应用来说都非常昂贵，这种易于使用的大规模定制设计的探测器可以直接应用于中微子探测。