Gel dosimeters for medical physics applications

Abstract

Gel dosimeters for three-dimensional mapping of radiotherapy doses were introduced at Yale University in the mid-1980’s. Soon after, R&D in this field also started in Italy. Early work was done at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, and at the Universities of Pisa and Milan. Several institutes now collaborate on this topic with support from the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MIUR) through Grant PRIN SNALEM2010 “Development and application of new materials for ionizing radiation dosimetry”. This presentation describes this research, which aims at developing new formulations of hydrogel matrices with improved characteristics of stability, sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to those of earlier Fricke-gel and polymer-gel systems. An additional goal of our research is the simplification of the manufacturing processes in order to facilitate the diffusion of this technology and its transition from the bench to the bedside.