Creating proton stopping power images for proton therapy using dual-energy x-ray CT imaging
Mr. Adam Zieser; University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Interest in proton radiotherapy has increased in recent decades, but the standard method of acquiring patient proton stopping power images for treatment planning may not be accurate enough to justify the use of protons over more conventional treatments utilizing x-rays and gamma rays. In this talk, a method of converting x-ray attenuation images to relative proton stopping power (RSP) images using dual-energy CT (DECT) is presented. By eliminating beam-hardening artifacts from reconstructed images, this method may offer advantages over the traditional method of RSP determination, which is derived via stoichiometric calibration curve between x-ray attenuation and RSP. Reconstructed RSP images based on Monte Carlo simulated DECT scans using the radiation transport code MCNP are presented as a proof of concept.