Monte Carlo study on mucosal dose in oral and naval cavity using photon beams with small field

Monte-Carlo techniques for radiotherapy applications II: equipment and source modelling, dose calculations and radiobiology

Introduction:

This is the second of two papers giving an overview of the use of Monte-Carlo techniques for radiotherapy applications.

Methods:

The first paper gave an introduction and introduced some of the codes that are available to the user wishing to model the different aspects of radiotherapy treatment. It also aims to serve as a useful companion to a curated collection of papers on Monte-Carlo that have been published in this journal.

Results and Conclusions:

This paper focuses on the application of Monte-Carlo to specific problems in radiotherapy. These include radiotherapy and imaging beam production, brachytherapy, phantom and patient dosimetry, detector modelling and track structure calculations for micro-dosimetry, nano-dosimetry and radiobiology.

A surface energy spectral study on the bone heterogeneity and beam obliquity using the flattened and unflattened photon beams

AIM

Using flattened and unflattened photon beams, this study investigated the spectral variations of surface photon energy and energy fluence in the bone heterogeneity and beam obliquity.

BACKGROUND

Surface dose enhancement is a dosimetric concern when using unflattened photon beam in radiotherapy. It is because the unflattened photon beam contains more low-energy photons which are removed by the flattening filter of the flattened photon beam.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We used a water and bone heterogeneity phantom to study the distributions of energy, energy fluence and mean energy of the 6 MV flattened and unflattened photon beams (field size = 10 cm × 10 cm) produced by a Varian TrueBEAM linear accelerator. These elements were calculated at the phantom surfaces using Monte Carlo simulations. The photon energy and energy fluence calculations were repeated with the beam angle turned from 0° to 15°, 30° and 45° in the water and bone phantom.

RESULTS

Spectral results at the phantom surfaces showed that the unflattened photon beams contained more photons concentrated mainly in the low-energy range (0-2 MeV) than the flattened beams associated with a flattening filter. With a bone layer of 1 cm under the phantom surface and within the build-up region of the 6 MV photon beam, it is found that both the flattened and unflattened beams had slightly less photons in the energy range <0.4 MeV compared to the water phantom. This shows that the presence of the bone decreased the low-energy photon backscatters to the phantom surface. When both the flattened and unflattened photon beams were rotated from 0° to 45°, the number of photon and mean photon energy increased. This indicates that both photon beams became more hardened or penetrate when the beam angle increased. In the presence of bone, the mean energies of both photon beams increased. This is due to the absorption of low-energy photons by the bone, resulting in more beam hardening.

CONCLUSIONS

This study explores the spectral relationships of surface photon energy and energy fluence with bone heterogeneity and beam obliquity for the flattened and unflattened photon beams. The photon spectral information is important in studies on the patient's surface dose enhancement using unflattened photon beams in radiotherapy.

Dosimetry of small bone joint calculated by the analytical anisotropic algorithm: a Monte Carlo evaluation using the EGSnrc

This study compared a small bone joint dosimetry calculated by the anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA) and Monte Carlo simulation using megavoltage (MV) photon beams. The performance of the AAA in the joint dose calculation was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation, and dependences of joint dose on its width and beam angle were investigated. Small bone joint phantoms containing a vertical water layer (0.5‐2 mm) sandwiched by two bones (2×2×2cm3) were irradiated by the 6 and 15 MV photon beams with field size equal to 4×4 cm2. Depth doses along the central beam axis in a joint (cartilage) were calculated with and without a bolus (thickness=1.5cm) added on top of the phantoms. Different beam angles (0°‐15°) were used with the isocenter set to the center of the bone joint for dose calculations using the AAA (Eclipse treatment planning system) and Monte Carlo simulation (the EGSnrc code). For dosimetry comparison and normalization, dose calculations were repeated in homogeneous water phantoms with the bone substituted by water. Comparing the calculated dosimetry between the AAA and Monte Carlo simulation, the AAA underestimated joint doses varying with its widths by about 6%‐12% for 6 MV and 12%‐23% for 15 MV without bolus, and by 7% for 6 MV and 13%‐17% for 15 MV with bolus. Moreover, joint doses calculated by the AAA did not vary with the joint width and beam angle. From Monte Carlo results, there was a decrease in the calculated joint dose as the joint width increased, and a slight decrease as the beam angle increased. When bolus was added to the phantom, it was found that variations of joint dose with its width and beam angle became less significant for the 6 MV photon beams. In conclusion, dosimetry deviation in small bone joint calculated by the AAA and Monte Carlo simulation was studied using the 6 and 15 MV photon beam. The AAA could not predict variations of joint dose with its width and beam angle, which were predicted by the Monte Carlo simulations.

PACS numbers: 87.55.K‐; 87.53.Bn; 87.53.‐j