Comments on shielding for dual energy accelerators
- Radiation Oncology, Hartford Hospital, 80 Seymour Street, Hartford, Connecticut 06102 (United States)
Determination of shielding requirements for medical linear accelerators has been greatly facilitated by the publication of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) latest guidelines on this subject in NCRP Report No. 151. In the present report the authors review their own recent experience with patient treatments on conventional dual energy linear accelerators to examine the various input parameters needed to follow the NCRP guidelines. Some discussion is included of workloads, occupancy, use factors, and field size, with the effects of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments included. Studies of collimator settings showed average values of 13.1x16.2 cm{sup 2} for 6 MV and 14.1x16.8 cm{sup 2} for 18 MV conventional ports, and corresponding average unblocked areas of 228 and 254 cm{sup 2}, respectively. With an average of 77% of the field area unblocked, this gives a mean irradiated area of 196 cm{sup 2} for the 18 MV beam, which dominates shielding considerations for most dual energy machines. Assuming conservatively small room dimensions, a gantry bin angle of 18 deg. was found to represent a reasonable unit for tabulation of use factors. For conventional 18 MV treatments it was found that the usual treatment angles of 0, 90, 180, and 270 deg. were still favored, and use factors of 0.25 represent reasonable estimates for these beams. As expected, the IMRT fields (all at 6 MV) showed a high degree of gantry angle randomization, with no bin having a use factor in excess of 0.10. It is concluded that unless a significant number of patients are treated with high energy IMRT, the traditional use factors of 0.25 are appropriate for the dominant high energy beam.
- OSTI ID:
- 21120745
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Journal Name: Medical Physics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 35; ISSN 0094-2405; ISSN MPHYA6
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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