A customized bolus produced using a 3-dimensional printer for radiotherapy

Boluses are used in high-energy radiotherapy in order to overcome the skin sparing effect. In practice though, commonly used flat boluses fail to make a perfect contact with the irregular surface of the patient's skin, resulting in air gaps. Hence, we fabricated a customized bolus using a 3-dim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-10, Vol.9 (10), p.e110746-e110746
Main Authors: Kim, Shin-Wook, Shin, Hun-Joo, Kay, Chul Seung, Son, Seok Hyun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3-D printers
Air gaps
Customization
Drug dosages
Feasibility studies
Humans
Inspection
Medical imaging
Medicine
Medicine and Health Sciences
Neoplasms - radiotherapy
Oncology
Parameters
Phantoms, Imaging
Printing, Three-Dimensional
Radiation therapy
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy Dosage
Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted
Skin
Skin cancer
Three dimensional printing
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Summary:Boluses are used in high-energy radiotherapy in order to overcome the skin sparing effect. In practice though, commonly used flat boluses fail to make a perfect contact with the irregular surface of the patient's skin, resulting in air gaps. Hence, we fabricated a customized bolus using a 3-dimensional (3D) printer and evaluated its feasibility for radiotherapy. We designed two kinds of bolus for production on a 3D printer, one of which was the 3D printed flat bolus for the Blue water phantom and the other was a 3D printed customized bolus for the RANDO phantom. The 3D printed flat bolus was fabricated to verify its physical quality. The resulting 3D printed flat bolus was evaluated by assessing dosimetric parameters such as D1.5 cm, D5 cm, and D10 cm. The 3D printed customized bolus was then fabricated, and its quality and clinical feasibility were evaluated by visual inspection and by assessing dosimetric parameters such as Dmax, Dmin, Dmean, D90%, and V90%. The dosimetric parameters of the resulting 3D printed flat bolus showed that it was a useful dose escalating material, equivalent to a commercially available flat bolus. Analysis of the dosimetric parameters of the 3D printed customized bolus demonstrated that it is provided good dose escalation and good contact with the irregular surface of the RANDO phantom. A customized bolus produced using a 3D printer could potentially replace commercially available flat boluses.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0110746