The Practice of Additive Manufacturing for Estimation of Average Absorbed Dose in Clinical Proton Beams

There is a necessary requirement to provide precise dosimetry measurements for radiotherapy and radiobiological studies in the proton beams. The most common practice nowadays to obtain the dose distribution is the use of ionization chambers. However, for many needs, it is also required to estimate an average absorbed dose in the target, while the targets themselves might have complex geometries and large volumes. One of the recent successful method for such measurement is the chemical dosimetry using FBX solutions coupled with the additive manufacturing, which can ensure the accurate representation of complex target geometries. In this study, we chose an optimal chemically neutral material for 3D printing that is not reacting with any of FBX compounds, manufactured the sealed waterproof target models with complex geometry and performed preliminary measurements of the average absorbed dose in a number of volumes representing the different shapes of the targets. The obtained results strongly confirm the possibility of the use of the presented technology for practical dosimetry of proton beams.