The ‘dose magnifying glass’ team pictured (from left to r...

Silicon strip detector -- another tool in fight against cancer

Researchers at the University of Wollongong have made a major contribution to improving the quality of radiation therapy delivered to patients by producing a detector capable of measuring radiation doses more precisely than previously possible.

The 'silicon strip detector' -- dubbed the 'dose magnifying glass' -- can measure both in time (within one tenth of a second) and space (within 2 tenths of a millimetre). This allows radiation dosages to be measured with very high precision, improving the quality of treatment that can be administered.

The detector has been developed by one of UOW's research strengths, the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP) along with the Medical Physics Department of the Illawarra Cancer Care Centre (ICCC). The research falls within the 'Cancer Continuum' theme of the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI).

This major achievement was recently selected by World Medical Physics Web as a ' Latest News' feature, sparking immediate interest from international companies interested in commercialising the instrument.

Director of the CMRP and lead author of the paper on World Medical Physics Web, Professor Anatoly Rozenfeld, said that cancer was rapidly becoming the largest cause of mortality this century.

"To address this problem and save more lives, better technologies for diagnosis and treatment of cancer are required. We hope that this latest piece of technology we have developed will help in the fight against cancer," Professor Rozenfeld said.

The full title of the researchers' paper which has featured on the World Medical Physics Web is "A silicon stripdetector dose magnifying glass for IMRT* dosimetry". It can be viewed at here [*IMRT refers to intensity-modulated radiation therapy]

Professor Rozenfeld said that silicon sensors had several advantages for radiation dosimetry as they offer reproducibility due to well developed microelectronic technology and unbeatable spatial resolution.

"These cannot be achieved by other 'real time' commercially available detectors and, as well, the silicon sensors include multichannel readout electronics in a single chip," Professor Rozenfeld said.

The core objectives of the CMRP are excellence in research and development in the field of innovative radiation therapy, radiation instrumentation and measurements. It has developed strong research programs in mini-micro and nano dosimetry using advanced microelectronics nano-technology and its applications in brachytherapy, IMRT, Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT), proton beam radiotherapy, micro beam radiation therapy and innovative magneto radiotherapy.