Design and fabrication of a personalized anthropomorphic phantom using 3D printing and tissue equivalent materials

To fabricate an individualized anthropomorphic lung phantom with tissue-equivalent radiation attenuation properties using a cost-effective three-dimensional (3D) printing technique. Based on anonymized human chest CT images, the phantom contained a 3D-printed skin shell, filled with tissue equivalent materials with similar radiation attenuation characteristics. The filling materials were a mixture of CaCO₃, MgO, agarose, NaCl, pearl powder and silica gel. The dose calculation accuracy of different treatment planning system (TPS) algorithms was validated and compared with the ion chamber measurements in the phantom, including tumor and surrounding normal tissues. The chest phantom was shown to represent a human’s chest in terms of radiation attenuation property and human anatomy. The Hounsfield unit ranges were −60 to −100, 20 to 60, and 120 to 300 for fat, muscle, and bone, respectively. The actual measured values of the ionization chamber were 213.7 cGy for the tumor, 53.85 cGy for normal lung tissue, and 4.1 cGy for the spinal cord, compared to 214.1, 55.2, and 4.5 cGy, respectively, with use of the Monte Carlo algorithm in TPS. The application of 3D printing in anthropomorphic phantoms can improve personalized medical need and efficiency with reduce costs thus, can be used for radiation dose verification.