(Sunday, 7/29/2018) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose: To create and test a novel Scale Maille Armor for contralateral breast protection during radiotherapy breast treatment.
Methods: During breast radiotherapy treatment, the contralateral breast receives radiation doses to the skin and subcutaneous tissue caused mainly by incident electron contamination and low energy x-ray scatter radiation. Measurements have shown that for a typical hybrid tangential treatment, these dose levels can be up to 17 % of maximum applied dose if no shielding is used during the treatment process. This work shows a simple and novel method to substantially reduce this dose level with the use of a copper scale maille sheet which can be easily and accurately draped over a patient’s contralateral breast during treatment.
Results: The copper scale maille is flexible and can thus conform around typical breast shapes. It can also form irregular shaped edges to match those outlined by typical tangential treatment fields. As the shield is made from copper, it is non-toxic and could potentially be used directly on patients for treatment. The designed copper scale maille has shown to reduce contralateral breast skin and subcutaneous dose by up to 75% for typical radiation fields used in breast radiotherapy.
Conclusion: The designed SMART armor can potentially substantially reduce contralateral breast skin and subcutaneous dose provide enhanced patient shielding during radiotherapy and following best use of ALARA principles.
Keywords
Shielding, Breast, Electron Contamination
Taxonomy
TH- External beam- photons: protection and shielding
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