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. 2017 Oct-Dec;7(4):247-251.

Effect of Material and Wall Thickness Buildup Caps on the Head Scatter Factor Measurements in Irregular Fields Shielded by Cerrobend

Ali Jomehzadeh  1 , Daryoush Shahbazi-Gahrouei  2 , Vahid Jahanbakhsh  2
Affiliations

Effect of Material and Wall Thickness Buildup Caps on the Head Scatter Factor Measurements in Irregular Fields Shielded by Cerrobend

Ali Jomehzadeh et al. J Med Signals Sens. 2017 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

The head scatter factor (Sc ) is important to measurements radiation beam and beam modeling of treatment planning systems used for advanced radiation therapy techniques. This study aimed to investigate the design of a miniphantom to measurement variations in collimator Sc in the presence of shielding blocks for shaping the beam using different field sizes. Copper, Brass, and Perspex buildup caps were designed and fabricated locally as material with three different thicknesses for buildup caps (miniphantoms). Measurements were performed on an Elekta Compact medical linear accelerator (6 MV) in Shafa Kerman Hospital, Iran. The Farmer-type ion chamber FG65-P (Scanditronix, Wellhofer) was used for all measurements. To measure the Sc , miniphantom was positioned in a stand vertical to the beam central axis. The data indicate that the Sc measurements using different buildup cap materials and thicknesses in 5 × 10, 7.5 × 7.5, and two 10 × 10 cm Cerrobend shield blocks ranged 0.98 to 1.00, 1.04 to 1.05, and 1.04 to 1.06, respectively. Also, it was observed that by increasing the block shield area from 50 cm2 to both 56.25 and 100 cm2, the Sc increased in all situations. Results showed that using Brass compared to Perspex and Copper has less uncertainty due to its simple preparation and cutting which is useful to measurement of variations in collimator Sc and shaping the photon beam.

Keywords: cerrobend block; linear accelerator; miniphantom; radiation therapy; scatter collimator factor.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Design of the block shield size for 6 MV photon beam. The dashed area illustrates the block shield region. (a) Shield (5 × 10 cm) was used in (10 × 10 cm) open field size, (b) shield (7.5 × 7.5 cm) was used in (15 × 15 cm) open field size, (c) two shield (5 × 10 cm) was used in (20 × 20 cm) open field size.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The miniphantom and chamber position during scatter factor measurements.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Variation of scatter factor measurements using different buildup cap materials, wall thicknesses, block shield areas, and open field sizes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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