Radiation Therapy Dosimetry: A Practical Handbook

This comprehensive book covers the everyday use and underlying principles of radiation dosimeters used in radiation oncology clinics. It provides an up-to-date reference spanning the full range of current modalities with emphasis on practical know-how. The main audience is medical physicists, radiation oncology physics residents, and medical physics graduate students. The reader gains the necessary tools for determining which detector is best for a given application. Dosimetry of cutting edge techniques from radiosurgery to MRI-guided systems to small fields and proton therapy are all addressed. Main topics include fundamentals of radiation dosimeters, brachytherapy and external beam radiation therapy dosimetry, and dosimetry of imaging modalities. Comprised of 30 chapters authored by leading experts in the medical physics community, the book:

• Covers the basic principles and practical use of radiation dosimeters in radiation oncology clinics across the full range of current modalities.
• Focuses on providing practical guidance for those using these detectors in the clinic.
• Explains which detector is more suitable for a particular application.
• Discusses the state of the art in radiotherapy approaches, from radiosurgery and MR-guided systems to advanced range verification techniques in proton therapy.
• Gives critical comparisons of dosimeters for photon, electron, and proton therapies.

Arash Darafsheh, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Radiation Oncology, a certified medical physicist by the American Board of Radiology (ABR), and the PI of the Optical Imaging and Dosimetry Lab at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He holds Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Optical Science and Engineering, and an M.Sc. in Radiation Medicine Engineering. His current research interests include optical methods in medical physics, detector development for radiotherapy, ultra-high dose rate FLASH radiotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and super-resolution microscopy. He has served as a mentor for many graduate students, postdoctoral research fellows, and clinical residents. He has published over 90 journal and conference papers, six book chapters, and one patent. He has been awarded research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). He is a member of AAPM and senior member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and SPIE-the international society for optics and photonics. He has served as an associate editor for Medical Physics and as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals.