Experimental and numerical studies on kV scattered x-ray imaging for real-time image guidance in radiation therapy

TL;DR

This study explores the use of photon counting detectors and Monte Carlo simulations to develop a real-time, marker-less x-ray scattering imaging technique for guiding lung cancer radiotherapy, demonstrating promising feasibility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scattered x-ray imaging method using photon counting detectors and simulation-based characterization for real-time radiotherapy guidance.

Findings

Photon counting detectors successfully measured scattered x-ray photons.

Corrected scattering images showed a high linear correlation (R2=0.91) with actual attenuation.

Image resolution depends on source-to-object distance and collimator height.

Abstract

Motion management is a critical component of image guidance radiotherapy for lung cancer. We previously proposed a scheme using kV scattered x-ray photons for marker-less real-time image guidance in lung cancer radiotherapy. This study reports our recently progress using the photon counting detection technique to demonstrate potential feasibility of this method and using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and ray-tracing calculations to characterize the performance. In our scheme, a thin slice of x-ray beam was directed to the target and we measured the outgoing scattered photons using a photon counting detector with a parallel-hole collimator to establish the correspondence between detector pixels and scatter positions. Image corrections of geometry, beam attenuation and scattering angle were performed to convert the raw image to the actual image of Compton attenuation coefficient. We set up a MC simulation system using an in-house developed GPU-based MC package modeling the image formation process. We also performed ray-tracing calculations to investigate the impacts of imaging system geometry on resulting image resolution. The experiment demonstrated feasibility of using a photon counting detector to measure scattered x-ray photons and generate the proposed scattered x-ray image. After correction, x-ray scattering image intensity and Compton scattering attenuation coefficient were linearly related, with R2=0.91. Contrast to Noise Ratios of different objects were improved and the values in experimental results and MC simulation results agreed with each other. Ray-tracing calculations revealed the dependence of image resolution on imaging geometry. The image resolution increases with reduced source to object distance and increased collimator height. The study demonstrated potential feasibility of using scattered x-ray imaging as a real-time image guidance method in radiation therapy.