Radiation Physics Book Recommendation

[TheOwl007]

What book do you recommend that covers the physics of radiation therapy in detail - not necessarily the clinical aspects of radiation oncology. I am looking for a book that assumes the reader has only a basic background in physics (I'm a MS3 and have completed calculus based university-level physics). Also, it would be nice if the book explains the derivation of formulas and maybe even provides a historical perspective in how the physics of radiation therapy evolved.

I found some books recommended on this forum and others from amazon. What is your opinion about these? Is there some other book that is better? Thanks all!

The Physics of Radiation Therapy - by Khan
Radiation Therapy Physics - by Hendee, Ibbott
Clinical Radiotherapy Physics - by Jayaraman, Lanzl
Applied Physics for Radiation Oncology - by Stanton, Stinson

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[Pewl]

Well I DON'T recommend the Johns and Cunningham book, nor the Attix dosimetry book... those two were brutal.

 

[Werg]

None of the radiation therapy physics books go into much detail about the underlying physics. This is probably because those books are aimed at very broad audiences (i.e. rad oncs, physicists, dosimetrists, therapists, etc). All of those people complain about the books and for different, legitimate reasons. For example, a lot of physicists find Khan and Hendee to be weak on actual physics.

For more depth on the basic physics you might look at a book like Atoms, Radiation, and Radiation Protection by James Turner. Note that this book is refered to as a gradute text book, which it is, but most of the basic physics is material that physics majors would have already learned as undergrads (probably as 2nd year students). What they would not have learned is the dosimetry and health/medical physics topics.

As far as math goes, you probably need to be able to understand multivariable calculus (mostly volume integrals), and some basic (ordinary) differential equations.

That being said, I'm not sure going in to that kind of depth with the physics will greatly help an aspiring rad onc, beyond fullfilling personal curiousity. I think understanding the radiobiology well would be a bigger benefit.

Edit: I'll add Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists by Ervin B. Podgorsak. I haven't actually read this book, but the table of contents looks very promising.

 

[TheOwl007]

Werg,

Thank you very much for those two recommendations. Those books are precisely what I had in mind.

Question:

I actually enjoy the nitty-gritty aspects of physics, multivariable calculus, and differential equations. That is actually what first got me interested in radiation oncology (and later other aspects of the field appealed to me). From what I understand, having a detailed knowledge of physics/math is not neccassary/needed to practice Rad Onc.
But, for someone who has that knowledge, are there outlets in the field where I could make some productive use out of it? Are there areas of research that require the application this level of physics? From my perspective, Rad Onc research at academic programs is all radio-biology.

 

[medgator]

Are there areas of research that require the application this level of physics? From my perspective, Rad Onc research at academic programs is all radio-biology.

There are some big-name depts with decent physics reseach going on. In many cases these departments have exclusive arrangements with main vendors of Linacs (Varian, Elekta etc.) to get technology into the clinic relatively quickly.

A lot of the IGRT technology that has become widely used came about because of physics research.