• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.80-87
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• 2022

Purpose: Proton therapy has different relative biological effectiveness (RBE) compared with X-ray treatment, which is the standard in radiation therapy, and the fixed RBE value of 1.1 is widely used. However, RBE depends on a charged particle's linear energy transfer (LET); therefore, measuring LET is important. We have developed a LET measurement method using the inefficiency characteristic of an EBT3 film on a proton beam's Bragg peak (BP) region. Methods: A Gafchromic EBT3 film was used to measure the proton beam LET. It measured the dose at a 10-cm pristine BP proton beam in water to determine the quenching factor of the EBT3 film as a reference beam condition. Monte Carlo (MC) calculations of dose-averaged LET (LET_d) were used to determine the quenching factor and validation. The dose-averaged LETs at the 12-, 16-, and 20-cm pristine BP proton beam in water were calculated with the quenching factor. Results: Using the passive scattering proton beam nozzle of the National Cancer Center in Korea, the LET_d was measured for each beam range. The quenching factor was determined to be 26.15 with 0.3% uncertainty under the reference beam condition. The dose-averaged LETs were measured for each test beam condition. Conclusions: We developed a method for measuring the proton beam LET using an EBT3 film. This study showed that the magnitude of the quenching effect can be estimated using only one beam range, and the quenching factor determined under the reference condition can be applied to any therapeutic proton beam range.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 1985

An alternative estimator for dose equivalent was derived. The original LET distribution concept was transformed into a charged particle fluence spectrum concept along with the definition of an average quality factor named slowing-down averaged quality factor by adopting the continuous slowing down approximation. With the alternative estimator, the dose equivalent delivered into a receptor located in a given radiation field can be directly and conveniently estimated in a Monte Carlo procedure. The slowing-down averaged quality factors for the energy range below 10 MeV were evaluated and tabulated for the charged particles which may be generated from the interactions of neutron with the nuclei composing soft tissue.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.216-218
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• 2002

Fluence and LET spectrum for 290,400 MeV/u $\^$12/C and 400 MeV/u $\^$20/Ne beams have been measured by a $\Delta$E-E counter telescope. Total charge-changing cross sections are deduced from measured fluence. The measured cross sections agree with previous measurements, however, they are disagreement with a model calculation. To dose-averaged LETs, the model calculation can reproduce the measured LETs except for peak LETs at Bragg peak region.