Stability of A-150 plastic ionization chamber response over a ~30 year period

At the NIU Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab, the clinical tissue-equivalent ionization chamber response is measured every treatment day using a cesium source that was configured to match readings obtained at the National Bureau of Standards. Daily measurements are performed in air using the air-to-tissue dose conversion factors given in AAPM Report no. 7. The measured exposure calibration factors have been tabulated and graphed as a function of time from 1978 to present. For A-150 plastic ionization chambers, these factors exhibit a sinusoidal variation with a period of approximately one year and amplitude of {+-} 1%. This variation, attributable to the hygroscopic nature of A-150 plastic, is correlated with the relative humidity of the facility, and is greater than the humidity corrections for gas described in the literature. Our data suggest that chamber calibration should be performed at least weekly to accommodate these variations

The spontaneous speaking vocabulary of children in nursery-kindergarten, grades one, two and three.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Accelerators for cancer therapy

The vast majority of radiation treatments for cancerous tumors are given using electron linacs that provide both electrons and photons at several energies. Design and construction of these linacs are based on mature technology that is rapidly becoming more and more standardized and sophisticated. The use of hadrons such as neutrons, protons, alphas, or carbon, oxygen and neon ions is relatively new. Accelerators for hadron therapy are far from standardized, but the use of hadron therapy as an alternative to conventional radiation has led to significant improvements and refinements in conventional treatment techniques. This paper presents the rationale for radiation therapy, describes the accelerators used in conventional and hadron therapy, and outlines the issues that must still be resolved in the emerging field of hadron therapy

Osteogenic Sarcoma of the Maxilla: Neutron Therapy for Unresectable Disease

Purpose. To present a case study involving the use of fast neutron therapy to treat an extensive unresectable osteogenic sarcoma arising from the left maxilla

Feasibility of the utilization of BNCT in the fast neutron therapy beam at Fermilab

The Neutron Therapy Facility at Fermilab has treated cancer patients since 1976. Since then more than 2,300 patients have been treated and a wealth of clinical information accumulated. The therapeutic neutron beam at Fermilab is produced by bombarding a beryllium target with 66 MeV protons. The resulting continuous neutron spectrum ranges from thermal to 66 MeV in neutron energy. It is clear that this spectrum is not well suited for the treatment of tumors with boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) only However, since this spectrum contains thermal and epithermal components the authors are investigating whether BNCT can be used in this beam to boost the tumor dose. There are clinical scenarios in which a selective tumor dose boost of 10 - 15% could be clinically significant. For these cases the principal treatment would still be fast neutron therapy but a tumor boost could be used either to deliver a higher dose to the tumor tissue or to reduce the dose to the normal healthy tissue while maintaining the absorbed dose level in the tumor tissue