Influence of phantom material and dimensions on experimental {sup 192}Ir dosimetry
- Department of Medical and Health Sciences (IMH), Radiation Physics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linkoeping University, SE-581 85 Linkoeping (Sweden)
In treatment planning of brachytherapy, absorbed dose is calculated by superposing predetermined distributions of absorbed dose to water in water for the single source according to the irradiation pattern [i.e., placement of the source(s) or dwelling position(s)]. Single-source reference water data are derived from Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and/or experiments. For reasons of positional accuracy, experimental brachytherapy dosimetry is most often performed in plastic phantoms. This work investigates the water equivalence of phantoms made from polystyrene, PMMA, and solid water for {sup 192}Ir dosimetry. The EGSnrc MC code is used to simulate radial absorbed dose distributions in cylindrical phantoms of dimensions ranging in size from diameter and height of 20 cm to diameter and height of 40 cm. Water equivalence prevails if the absorbed dose to water in the plastic phantom is the same as the absorbed dose to water in a water phantom at equal distances from the source. It is shown that water equivalence at a specified distance from the source depends not only on the size of the plastic phantom but also on the size of the water phantom used for comparison. Compared to equally sized water phantoms, phantoms of polystyrene are less water equivalent than phantoms of PMMA and solid water but compared to larger water phantoms they are the most water equivalent. Although phantom dimension is the most important single factor influencing the dose distributions around {sup 192}Ir sources, the effect of material properties is non-negligible and becomes increasingly important as phantom dimensions increase. The importance of knowing the size of the water phantom whose data underlies treatment planning systems, when using such data as a reference in, e.g., detector evaluation studies, is discussed. To achieve the highest possible accuracy in experimental dosimetry, phantom-specific correction factors should be used.
- OSTI ID:
- 22100535
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Vol. 36, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2009 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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