(Sunday, 7/12/2020) [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]
Room: AAPM ePoster Library
Purpose: With the advent of the modern era of proton therapy with consideration for hypofractionated/FLASH treatments, the traditional paradigms/assumptions of barrier thicknesses calculation would lead to wall thicknesses that are considerably larger than existing designs.
Method: Our institution is currently evaluating facility shielding for our recently approved proton equipment, with considerations towards future implementation for FLASH treatments. We have developed a parametric approach to help develop shielding assumptions that are realistic and not too conservative. This method uses the following input data: a) target volumes by disease sites extracted from our treatment planning database for a five year period; b) prescribed doses for different disease sites; c) disease site breakdown expected; d) best estimates of conventional and FLASH/hypo-fractionated case mix along with the prescribed dose for each modality; and e) treatment times for different complexity of treatments.
Results: Our model allows us to appropriately weight all the parameters, allowing for different levels of conservativeness. The output of our model can be weighted averages for target volumes, dose/fraction and the patents per hour as assumptions for empirical shielding calculations. Additionally, these parameters can be inputs for Monte Carlo calculations for different scenarios to parameterize the source terms directly into the weighting to allow for the most realistic calculation of barrier thicknesses – an effort currently underway.
Conclusion: We feel that our approach towards calculating barrier thicknesses will allow us to adequately account for FLASH and other proton treatments realistically and serve as a systematic approach for future facility design.
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