Development of a 3D cavity dosimeter and image analysis software for in-body invivo dose measurement of organs at risk to make radiotherapy safer for patients and more efficient for clinicians

目前估计每2人中就有1人患有癌症，其中约40%将接受放射治疗（cancerresearchuk.org）。放射治疗涉及使用电离辐射来治疗肿瘤，几十年来一直是癌症治疗的关键要素。然而，10-25%的放射治疗患者因其治疗而受损或失败，这通常是因为目前没有办法测量体内接收的实际辐射并将其与计划剂量进行比较，我们的愿景是提供医疗设备来快速测量肿瘤和周围器官的辐射，TRUEinvivo开发了一种使用微（1 mm）玻璃珠串的设备，可以测量1 mm和±3%范围内的实际剂量。精度该设备名为DoseMapper，以及相关的自动读取器仍在开发中，因此尚未提供给患者，但应在2019年底之前提供。该项目的目标和主要创新是开发3D版本的DoseMapper，仍然使用相同的玻璃TLD，这些TLD串在弹性线上，但缠绕在气球或插入物上。其设想的是，这可以应用于测量在可接近的肿瘤（例如，头颈癌的口腔）或处于危险中的器官处的接收剂量（例如，在治疗前列腺癌时测量直肠壁处的剂量）。一旦在一个疗程中测量了剂量水平，临床医生就可以获得调整剂量的信息，从而最大限度地减少对患者的辐射暴露和对健康组织的损伤。

It is currently estimated that 1 in 2 people will have cancer and of these around 40% will receive radiotherapy treatment (cancerresearchuk.org). Radiotherapy involves using ionising radiation to treat tumours and has been a key element of cancer treatment for decades. However 10-25% of radiotherapy patients are damaged or failed by their treatment often because currently there is no way to measure the actual radiation received in-body and compare it to the planned dose, Our vision is to provide medical devices to measure the radiation at the tumour - and surrounding organs - quickly, cheaply and simply so that radiotherapy can be applied more safely and effectively.TRUEinvivo has developed a device that uses strings of micro (1mm) glass beads to measure the actual dose within 1mm and ±3% accuracy. This device named DoseMapper, and the associated automated reader, is still in development and so not yet available for patients but should be available by the end of 2019\.The aim of this project, and the major innovation, is to develop a 3D version of DoseMapper, still using the same glass TLDs strung on a stretchy thread but wrapped around a balloon or insert. Its envisaged this could find application for measuring received dose at an accessible tumour (e.g. mouth cavity for head and neck cancers) or organs at risk (e.g. measuring the dose at the rectal wall when treating prostate cancer). Once the dose levels have been measured in one session, the clinician has the information to adjust the dose, minimising radiation exposure to the patient and damage to healthy tissue.