evaluation of aaa and xvmc algorithms for dose calculation in lung equivalent heterogeneity in photon fields: comparison of calculated results with measurements

aims: the aim of the present work is (1) to evaluate dose calculation accuracy of two commonly used algorithms for 15 mv small photon fields in a medium encompassing heterogeneity and (2) compare these results with measured results obtained using gafchromic film ebt2. materials and methods: authors employed kailwood (pinus wallichiana) to mimic lung. briefly, seven kailwood plates, each measuring 25x25 cm2 of varying thicknesses totaling 13 cm equivalent to the mean thickness of an adult human lung, were sandwiched between 5 cm tissue equivalent material from top and 10 cm below. physical measurements were performed using radiochromic film ebt2. the field sizes of 1x1, 2x2, 5x5 and 10x10 cm2 were selected at 100 cm ssd. simulations were performed using egsnrc/dosrznrc monte carlo code. the dose variation inside the inhomogeneity and near the interface was calculated using aaa & xvmc algorithm.  results: preliminary results show that there is large variation of dose inside inhomogeneity. the maximum variation of dose inside the inhomogeneity for 1x1 cm2 was found 40% by aaa and 4.5% by xvmc compared to measured/simulated results. for the field size of 2x2 cm2, these figures were 27% by aaa & 3.5% by xvmc.  for 5x5 cm2 field size, the variation is small which becomes insignificant for larger fields.  conclusion: the results presented in this work indicate that for smaller fields, xvmc algorithm gives more realistic prediction, while there is need for caution when using aaa algorithm for dose calculations involving small area irradiation encompassing heterogeneities and low-density media.