Introduction: Treatment with megavoltage electron beams is ideal for irradiating superficial tumors because of their limited range in tissues. However, for electron treatment of extended areas, such as the chest wall, two or more adjacent fields can be used. Abutment of these fields may lead to significant dose in homogeneities in the junction region. The aim of this study is to offer a new met...

background: the electron contamination may reduce or even diminish the skin sparing property of the megavoltage beam. the detailed characteristics of contaminant electrons are presented for different field sizes and cases. materials and methods: the monte carlo code, mcnpx, has been used to simulate 18 mv photon beam from a varian linac-2300 accelerator. all dose measurements were carried out u...

PURPOSE Thermoluminescent dosimeters are used routinely for dosimetric measurements of photon and electron fields. However, no work has been published characterizing TLDs for use in combined photon and electron fields. This work investigates the response of TLD-100 (LiF:Mg,Ti) in mixed fields of photon and electron beam qualities. METHODS TLDs were irradiated in a 6 MV photon beam, 6 MeV elec...

Introduction: Radiation therapy (RT) is the gold standard treatment for more than half of known tumors. There is increasing evidence that combining radiation therapy with a radiosensitizer can enhance the efficiency of this treatment modality. A radiosensitizer preferably enhances dose at the site of tumor and increases discrimination between tumor and normal surrounding tissue...

As flattening filter-free (FFF) photon beams become readily available for treat-ment delivery in techniques such as SBRT, thorough investigation of skin dose from FFF photon beams is necessary under clinically relevant conditions. Using a parallel-plate PTW Markus chamber placed in a custom water-equivalent phantom, surface-dose measurements were taken at 2 × 2, 3 × 3, 4 × 4, 6 × 6, 8 × 8, 10 ×...

Purpose: In the last years, some studies investigated dosimetric benefits of a free flattening filter for the photon mode in the radiotherapy field. This study aims to provide a theoretical study published and analysis of basic dosimetric properties for a Saturne 43 Linac head to implement free flattening filter beams clinically. Material and Methods: Thi...

We evaluate the impact of an air gap and optimization of this air gap for the MP512 silicon detector array when operated in dosimetry mode for small photon field measurements in solid water. We present output factor measurements for 6MV and 10 MV photon beams with the square field sizes ranging from 0.5 to 10 cm2. The size of the air gap above the MP512 detector was changed from 0.5, 1.0, 1.2, ...

background: monte carlo (mc) modeling of a linear accelerator is a prerequisite for monte carlo dose calculations in external beam radiotherapy. in this study, a simple and efficient model was developed for elekta sl-25 linear accelerator using mcnp4c monte carlo code materials and methods: the head of elekta sl-25 linac was simulated for 6 and 18 mv photon beams using mcnp4c mc code. energy sp...