Development of a 3D cavity dosimeter and image analysis software for in-body invivo dose measurement of organs at risk to make radiotherapy safer for patients and more efficient for clinicians

It is currently estimated that 1 in 2 people will have cancer and of these around 40% will receive radiotherapy treatment (cancerresearchuk.org). Radiotherapy involves using ionising radiation to treat tumours and has been a key element of cancer treatment for decades. However 10-25% of radiotherapy patients are damaged or failed by their treatment often because currently there is no way to measure the actual radiation received in-body and compare it to the planned dose, Our vision is to provide medical devices to measure the radiation at the tumour - and surrounding organs - quickly, cheaply and simply so that radiotherapy can be applied more safely and effectively.

TRUEinvivo has developed a device that uses strings of micro (1mm) glass beads to measure the actual dose within 1mm and ±3% accuracy. This device named DoseMapper, and the associated automated reader, is still in development and so not yet available for patients but should be available by the end of 2019\.

The aim of this project, and the major innovation, is to develop a 3D version of DoseMapper, still using the same glass TLDs strung on a stretchy thread but wrapped around a balloon or insert. Its envisaged this could find application for measuring received dose at an accessible tumour (e.g. mouth cavity for head and neck cancers) or organs at risk (e.g. measuring the dose at the rectal wall when treating prostate cancer). Once the dose levels have been measured in one session, the clinician has the information to adjust the dose, minimising radiation exposure to the patient and damage to healthy tissue.