Supporting preclinical irradiation research | Spring Into STEM

We designed and implemented and E2E dosimetry test, that with the use of an anatomically correct mouse phantom, simulates all the steps of the image guided radiation treatment process of small animals: positioning, imagining, contouring of planning volume, targeting and dose delivery. Instead of an specific tumoral volume, an alanine pellet (passive dose detector) is irradiated and the dose calculated with the treatment planning system is compared to the measured dose. 100 % of analysed dose differences, from the six participant institutions, were within +/- 10% (87.5% within +/-5%). That result is an indication of the level of accuracy that is possible to achieve while delivering dose to targeted volumes in relevant mice irradiation conditions for preclinical research. The work demonstrated that alanine is a suitable detector and that the developed end-to-end test, in combination with a purposely designed phantom is adequate to support the efforts in improving and harmonizing dosimet