Hendee's Radiation Therapy Physics

This completely updated and revised new edition of Radiation Therapy Physics contains comprehensive, balanced coverage of the fundamental radiation physics principles and its clinical applications. Since publication of the ground-breaking first edition in the 1970s, high-energy x-ray and electron beams have increasingly become the preferred approach to the radiation treatment of many cancers. Obviously, too, the use of computers has become pervasive in radiation therapy. Imaging techniques and computers are now used routinely in treatment planning, and sophisticated methods are available for overlaying anatomical images with computer generated multidimensional treatment plans. Treatment procedures such as conformal and intensity-modulated radiation therapy, high dose-rate brachytherapy, and image-guided and image-guided and adaptive radiation therapy have become standard operating procedures in radiation therapy clinics around the world. Calibration protocols have been extensively revised, and quality assurance in radiation therapy has become a subject in itself. These procedures, and others that represent state-of-the-art radiation therapy including quality engineering, are discussed at length in this new edition. The 4th edition has an increased number of chapters (20 compared to 16) and includes new topics of interest to the practicing radiation oncologist and medical physicist:- The chapter on diagnostic imaging has been expanded to include molecular imaging.- A new chapter has been added on proton radiotherapy.- A new chapter has been added on radiation oncology informatics.- A new chapter has been added on quality and safety engineering. - A new chapter on dynamic delivery techniques, explaining the standard (e.g., IMRT) and new treatment techniques (e.g., VMAT). - The treatment planning and brachytherapy chapters omit a detailed explanation of historical techniques that no one uses clinically any longer, in favor of including a new focus on modern computer-ba