# Enhanced megavoltage imaging for radiotherapy by light-field imaging of scintillators

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $196,548

## Abstract

With more than 50% of all patients receiving radiation therapy (RT) for the management of their
cancers, RT is an essential part of a successful cancer treatment. In recent years, the use of kV and
MV imaging has greatly increased due to the adoption of image-guided radiation therapy techniques.
Direct imaging of the tumor position while the MV treatment beam is ON has potential for improving
tumor targeting, leading to better patient outcomes and reduced irradiation of healthy tissues. An
alternative method employs real-time kV fluoroscopic tracking to perform 3D tumor-position tracking.
However, this method can only be used for short periods of time as excess imaging dose can quickly
exceed patient skin-dose tolerance levels.
 MV electronic portal imaging devices (EPID) have the distinct advantage that they can avoid
this excess imaging dose by performing real-time tumor tracking using the actual MV treatment beam.
However, MV EPIDs generally suffer from poor image quality. Typically, a thin (<1 mm) layer of
scintillator is used to convert x-rays to visible light that is then detected by an array amorphous silicon
(aSi) photodectors. These thin scintillators have very low detective quantum efficiency (DQE) and lead
to images with poor contrast-to-noise ratios.
 We propose to overcome the EPID contrast obstacle by increasing the photon detection layer
to 10-50mm using a transparent scintillator and then capturing its 4D light field using a specially
designed optical camera system. The hypothesis is that by analyzing the 4D light field captured
from a transparent scintillator, in-focus 2D planes along the MV beam direction can be
effectively reconstructed. As contrast is linearly proportional to absorption efficiency, and absorption
is linearly proportional to detector thickness, this technique has the potential to increase DQE by
an order of magnitude over conventional techniques. The aims of the proposal are:
Aim 1 – Development of algorithms for simulating and processing MV based light fields.
Aim 2 – Experimental evaluation of a MV based light field camera.
If successful, the approach will enable realtime and/or adaptive image-guided radiation therapy
without addition of untargeted kilovoltage dose.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9924560
- **Project number:** 5R21EB028103-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Patrick Jean La Riviere
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $196,548
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9924560

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9924560, Enhanced megavoltage imaging for radiotherapy by light-field imaging of scintillators (5R21EB028103-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9924560. Licensed CC0.

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