An anthropomorphic radiation sensitive thorax phantom for simulated image guided radiotherapy (IP2)

Cancer has been one of the most prominent diseases consistently present throughout recorded history. Forms of treatment date back to the mid 1700s when a surgeon named John Hunter concluded that if all the cancerous cells could be removed from the body the patient could be effectively cured. Since then the methods we use to treat cancer have developed from what initially was highly invasive and risky surgery, often resulting in amputation, to the variety of less invasive techniques doctors use today such as chemical treatment, precision surgery and the use of radiation to destroy the cancerous cells. The latest innovative treatment aims to use a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map the internal organs of a patient in real time and a linear accelerator (LINAC) which will provide an external beam radiation treatment precisely to the cancerous cells to provide one of the least invasive treatments to date. To test this device as it is developed will require a model with moving organs and a quantifiable response to radiation dosage, and the next phase in building that testing device is covered in this report.