[en] Total photofission cross sections for 238U, 235U, 233U, 237Np, 232Th, and natPb have been measured simultaneously, using tagged photons in the energy range Egamma=0.17-3.84 GeV. This was the first experiment performed using the Photon Tagging Facility in Hall B at Jefferson Lab. Our results show that the photofission cross section for 238U relative to that for 237Np is about 80%, implying the presence of important processes that compete with fission. We also observe that the relative photofission cross sections do not depend strongly on the incident photon energy over this entire energy range. If we assume that for 237Np the photofission probability is equal to unity, we observe a significant shadowing effect starting below 1.5 GeV

[en] Purpose: In intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning, reducing the pencil-beam size may lead to a significant improvement in dose conformity, but also increase the time needed for the dose calculation and plan optimization. The authors develop and evaluate a postoptimization refinement (POpR) method, which makes fine adjustments to the multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf positions after plan optimization, enhancing the spatial precision and improving the plan quality without a significant impact on the computational burden. Methods: The authors’ POpR method is implemented using a commercial treatment planning system based on direct aperture optimization. After an IMRT plan is optimized using pencil beams with regular pencil-beam step size, a greedy search is conducted by looping through all of the involved MLC leaves to see if moving the MLC leaf in or out by half of a pencil-beam step size will improve the objective function value. The half-sized pencil beams, which are used for updating dose distribution in the greedy search, are derived from the existing full-sized pencil beams without need for further pencil-beam dose calculations. A benchmark phantom case and a head-and-neck (HN) case are studied for testing the authors’ POpR method. Results: Using a benchmark phantom and a HN case, the authors have verified that their POpR method can be an efficient technique in the IMRT planning process. Effectiveness of POpR is confirmed by noting significant improvements in objective function values. Dosimetric benefits of POpR are comparable to those of using a finer pencil-beam size from the optimization start, but with far less computation and time. Conclusions: The POpR is a feasible and practical method to significantly improve IMRT-plan quality without compromising the planning efficiency.

[en] Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of guided breathing for dose rate-regulated tracking (DRRT), a new technique to compensate for intrafraction tumor motion. Methods and Materials: DRRT uses a preprogrammed multileaf collimator sequence that tracks the tumor motion derived from four-dimensional computed tomography and the corresponding breathing signals measured before treatment. Because the multileaf collimator speed can be controlled by adjusting the dose rate, the multileaf collimator positions are adjusted in real time during treatment by dose rate regulation, thereby maintaining synchrony with the tumor motion. DRRT treatment was simulated with free, audio-guided, and audiovisual-guided breathing signals acquired from 23 lung cancer patients. The tracking error and duty cycle for each patient were determined as a function of the system time delay (range, 0-1.0 s). Results: The tracking error and duty cycle averaged for all 23 patients was 1.9 ± 0.8 mm and 92% ± 5%, 1.9 ± 1.0 mm and 93% ± 6%, and 1.8 ± 0.7 mm and 92% ± 6% for the free, audio-guided, and audiovisual-guided breathing, respectively, for a time delay of 0.35 s. The small differences in both the tracking error and the duty cycle with guided breathing were not statistically significant. Conclusion: DRRT by its nature adapts well to variations in breathing frequency, which is also the motivation for guided-breathing techniques. Because of this redundancy, guided breathing does not result in significant improvements for either the tracking error or the duty cycle when DRRT is used for real-time tumor tracking