A novel approach to infectious disease control and radiotherapy risk management.

Background: Infectious disease outbreaks have always presented challenges to the operation of healthcare systems. In particular, the treatment of cancer patients within Radiation Oncology often cannot be delayed or compromised due to infection control measures. Therefore, there is a need for a strategic approach to simultaneously managing infection control and radiotherapy risks.

Effect of ethmoid sinus cavity on dose distribution at interface and how to correct for it: magnetic field with photon beams.

Recent work proposed the use of magnetic field as a solution to reduce the undesirable effect of air cavities on dose after the air/tissue interface. In contrast to the published work that looks into the problem with slab geometries, in this work we use actual anatomy based on CT images and the magnetic flux from a Helmholtz coil-pair configuration to investigate the problem and to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed solution. The EGS4 phantom was created using CT scans of the head at the level of the ethmoid sinus.