Joao Seco1, Ravi Teja Seethamraju2, George Phil Broussard3, Hanne Kooy1, Mukesh Harisinghani4
1Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; 2Siemens Medical Solutions, USA Inc., Charlestown, MA, USA; 3Francis H Burr Proton Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; 4Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
The purpose of this study is to assess the clinical feasibility and effectiveness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for quality assurance in proton beam therapy. The hypothesis is that as MRI relies on the relaxation times of protons within the patient and proton beam therapy delivers protons to the tumor volume, the extra protons delivered to the cancer tumor volume will produce an additional magnetic signal that can be observed by MRI. Therefore, MRI is assessed as a tool to give functional information of proton beam therapy of cancerous tumor volume.
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