| Conventional x-ray sources for diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy are polychromatic in nature. The compact Compton X-ray Source (CXS) under development in our group produces monochromatic x-rays tunable from 20 to 120 keV. This dissertation focuses on the exploration of a compact monochromatic x-ray source such as the CXS, in medical applications of cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment.;For medical imaging, the potentially superior applicability of the CXS was discussed, in a variety of clinical applications. An example is given using computer simulation on contrast enhanced dual energy subtraction mammography to quantitatively demonstrate the superior performance of the CXS over the conventional source.;With a combination of the CXS imaging and the CXS XPT, a CXS image-guided XPT concept is proposed at the end of the dissertation. The merits of the CXS in imaging and XPT can be integrated to provide a modality that naturally monitoring the patient via real time imaging while carrying out high tumor/normal tissue differentiation XPT.;In the CXS X-ray Phototherapy (XPT), a high Z contrast agent is specifically targeted to the cancerous cells or cell nuclease, monochromatic x-rays tuned to the optimal energy of the contrast agent then irradiate the using a geometry similar to CT. The keV range x-rays interact preferentially with the contrast agent, and therefore deliver dose locally. In addition, the use of the tunable monochromatic CXS x-rays helps achieve the highest contrast enhancement, and improve the beam penetration and dose uniformity. In this dissertation, Monte Carlo simulation and cellular level experiments were employed to study the monochromatic XPT Fundamental questions were addressed, including the dose enhancement effect of different contrast agents, the energy dependency of the dose enhancement effect, the relationship between the dose enhancement factors and contrast agent concentrations, and the performance comparison between the monochromatic and the polychromatic x-ray sources. |
