Novel 3D polymer gel dosimeters based on N-(3-Methoxypropyl)acrylamide (NMPAGAT) for quality assurance in radiation oncology

New anoxic and normoxic polymer gel dosimeters containing different concentrations of N-(3-Methoxypropyl) acrylamide (NMPA) are introduced in this investigation for radiotherapy treatment planning dose validation. NMPA dosimeters were irradiated to 20 Gy using the 10 MV photon beam of a medical linear accelerator under a constant dose rate. The polymerization of NMPA dosimeters occurs and increases monotonically with increasing absorbed dose. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to investigate the degree of polymerization of gels. The dose response in terms of spin–spin relaxation rate (R2) of NMPA dosimeters increased with the addition of glycerol. The influence of the x-ray radiation energy, dose, and dose rate, as well as the stability of the irradiated NMPA gel dosimeters were studied in order to show this preliminary study is indicative of a promising low-toxicity polymer gel dosimeter.