Nuclear interaction correction based on dual-energy computed tomography in carbon-ion radiotherapy

Abstract Objective:
Accurate dose predictions are crucial to maximizing the benefits of carbon-ion therapy. Carbon beams incident on the human body cause nuclear interactions with tissues, resulting in changes in the constituent nuclides and leading to dose errors that are conventionally corrected using conventional single-energy computed tomography (SECT). Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) has frequently been used for stopping power estimation in particle therapy and is well suited for correcting nuclear reactions because of its detailed body-tissue elemental information. This study proposes a correction method for the absolute dose in carbon-ion therapy that considers changes in nuclide composition resulting from nuclear reactions with body tissues, as a novel application of DECT.
Approach:
The change in dose associated with nuclear reactions is determined by correcting each integrated depth dose component of the carbon beam using a nuclear interaction correction factor. This factor is determined based on the stopping power, mass density, and nuclear interaction cross-section in body tissue. The stopping power and mass density were calculated using established methods, whereas the nuclear interaction cross-section was newly defined through a conversion equation derived from the effective atomic number.
Main results:
Nuclear interaction correction factors and corrected doses were determined for 85 body tissues with known compositions, comparing them with existing SECT-based methods. The root-mean-square errors of the SECT- and DECT-based nuclear interaction correction factors relative to theoretical values were 0.66% and 0.39%, respectively.
Significance:
This indicates a notable enhancement in the estimation accuracy with DECT. The dose calculations in uniform body tissues derived from SECT showed slight over-correction in adipose and bone tissues, whereas those based on DECT were almost consistent with theoretical values. Our proposed method demonstrates the potential of DECT for enhancing dose calculation accuracy in carbon-ion therapy, complementing its established role in stopping power estimation.