UTILIZATION OF THERMOLUMINESCENT DOSIMETRY IN TOTAL SKIN ELECTRON-BEAM RADIOTHERAPY OF MYCOSIS-FUNGOIDES

Purpose: The purpose of this report is to discuss the utilization of t hermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) in total skin electron beam (TSEB) ra diotherapy to: (a) compare patient dose distributions for similar tech niques on different machines, (b) confirm beam calibration and monitor unit calculations, (c) provide data for making clinical decisions, an d (d) study reasons for variations in individual dose readings, Method s and Materials: We report dosimetric results for 72 eases of mycosis fungoides, using similar irradiation techniques on two different linea r accelerators, All patients were treated using a modified Stanford 6- field technique, In vivo TLD was done on all patients, and the data fo r all patients treated on both machines was collected into a database for analysis, Means and standard deviations (SDs) were computed for al l locations, Scatter plots of doses vs, height, weight, and obesity in dex were generated, and correlation coefficients with these variables were computed. Results: The TLD results show that our current TSEB imp lementation is dosimetrically equivalent to the previous implementatio n, and that our beam calibration technique and monitor unit calculatio n is accurate, Correlations with obesity index were significant at sev eral sites, Individual TLD results allow us to customize the boost tre atment for each patient, in addition to revealing patient positioning problems and/or systematic variations in dose caused by patient variab ility, The data agree well with previously published TLD results for s imilar TSEB techniques, Conclusion: TLD is an important part of the tr eatment planning and quality assurance programs for TSEB, and routine use of TLD measurements for TSEB is recommended. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence Inc.