ABSTRACT
Some animal studies were done in the past with megavolt beams, often without treatment planning or dosimetry. In case where a human computed tomography (CT) scanner is used to image a small animal, the voxel resolution may be too coarse to capture the details of the animal’s anatomy. Significant differences exist between treatment planning for radiotherapy research in small animals and clinical radiotherapy for human patients. A state-of-the-art treatment planning system (TPS) should be able to provide information on the photon spectrum in various animal tissues, thereby allowing estimates of relative biological effectiveness values. Modern commercial small animal irradiators come equipped with cone beam CT image x-ray imaging equipment. Ultrasound imaging may also be used for the visualization of soft tissue structures for small animal treatment planning. For small animal dosimetry, one should strive for clarity when reporting dose distributions to allow for meaningful comparisons. Commissioning of small animal irradiators and their dedicated TPS may require special measurement procedures.
