Design, development, and performance of an adapter for simulation of ocular melanoma patients in supine position for proton beam therapy

A patient assembly adapter system for ocular melanoma patient simulation was developed and its performance evaluated. The aim for the construction of the apparatus was to simulate the patients in supine position using a commercial x-ray simulator. The apparatus consists of a base plate, head immobilization holder, patient assembly system that includes fixation light and collimator system. The reproducibility of the repeated fixation was initially tested with a head phantom. Simulation and verification films were studied for seven consecutive patients treated with proton beam therapy. Patient's simulation was performed in a supine position using a dental fixation bite block and a thermoplastic head mask immobilization device with a patient adapter system. Two orthogonal x rays were used to obtain the x, y, and z coordinates of sutured tantalum rings for treatment planning with the EYEPLAN software. The verification films were obtained in treatment position with the fixation light along the central axis of the eye. The results indicate good agreement within 0.5 mm deviations. The results of this investigation showed that the same planning accuracy could be achieved by performing simulation using the adapter described above with a patient in the supine position as that obtained by performing simulation with the patient in the seated, treatment position. The adapter can also be attached to the head of the chair for simulating in the seated position using a fixed x-ray unit. This has three advantages: (1) this will save radiation therapists time; (2) it eliminates the need for arranging access to the treatment room, thus avoiding potential conflicts in treatment room usage; and (3) it allows the use of a commercial simulator