• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.277-283
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• 1995

Purpose : This study was performed to measure dose alteration at the air-tissue interface resulting from rebuild-up to the loss of charged particle equilibrium in the tissues around the air-tissue interfaces. Materials and Methods : The 6 and 10-MV photon beam in dual energy linear accelerator were used to measure the surface dose at the air-tissue interface The polystyrene phantom sized $25{\times}25{\times}5\;cm^3$ and a water phantom sized $29{\times}29{\times}48\;cm^3$ which incorporates a parallel-plate ionization chamber in the distal side of air gap were used in this study. The treatment field sizes were $5{\times}5\;cm^2,\;10{\times}10\;cm^2\;and\;20{\times}20\;cm^2$. Air cavity thickness was variable from 10 mm to 50 mm. The observed-expected ratio (OER) was defined as the ratio of dose measured at the distal junction that is air-tissue interface to the dose measured at the same point in a homogeneous phantom. Results : In this experiment, the result of OER was close or slightly over than 1.0 for the large field size but much less (about 0.565) than 1.0 for the small field size in both photon energy. The factors to affect the dose distribution at the air-tissue interface were the field size, the thickness of air cavity. and the photon energy. Conclusion : Thus, the radiation oncologist should take into account dose reduction at the air-tissue interface when planning the head and neck cancer especially pharynx and laryngeal lesions, because the dose can be less nearly $29{\%}$ than predicted value.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.565-569
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• 2017

This research aims at measuring the changes in the dose rate of photoneutron occurring in the process of the investigation into the 10 MV photon beam with a linear accelerator. In addition, the life time of the photoneutron after the end of irradiation was to be analyzed. The photoneutron were measured with a $BF_3$ proportional counter, and the measurement results of the dose rate of the photoneutron were analyzed in 3 parts at intervals of 2 seconds. The measurement results showed that the photoneutron were generated fastest when there was no metal plate inside the radiation field and when there was a lead plate, and that, as for the time that shows the final dose rate at the level of background, the life time was about 1 minute and 40 seconds regardless of the kinds of materials. Therefore, the dose rate according to the time until the photoneutron run out was proved to be different depending on the sorts of the materials and the threshold energy. However, final life time showed similar results regardless of the kinds of the materials, it can be concluded that the kinds of materials don't get involved in the life time of photoneutron.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2001

We have discussed that the total body irradiation(TBI) dose distribution of 6 and 10 MV photon beams, also differences between calculation dose use of compensator sheet and measurements in humanoid phantom. Total body irradiation and hemi-body irradiation(HBI) can be effectively performed when uniformity of dose distribution is estabilished. The method of TBI and HBI dosimatry requires special considerations related to technique, long distance and very large field, machine parameter, patient positioning. TBI and HBI with megavoltage photon beams requires basic dosimatric data which have to be measured directly or derived from the standard beam data. The semiconductor detector and ion chamber were positioned at a dmax depth, mid depth, and its specific ratio was determined using a scanning data by RFA-7 3-dimensional water phantom and solid phantom. The effective source axis distance 380 cm, the field size from 120 cm to 152 cm, isodose distributions were analyzed as a function of the thickness in phantom. Also, have discussed that the measurement of basic data for clinical photon beams for dosage calculations, data calculation sheet and the use of tissue compensation to improve dose uniformity. We have improved a dose uniformity in the TBI and HBI method.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2004

The relationship between the dose calculated with a radiotherapy treatment planning system (RTPS) and CT number verses the relative electron density curve was investigated for various CT voltages and beam qualifies. We obtained the relationship between the CT numbers and electron densities of the tissue equivalent materials for various CT voltages and beam qualifies. At lower CT voltages, the higher density materials, like cortical bone, showed larger CT numbers and the soft tissues showed no variations. We peformed a phantom study in a RTPS, where a phantom consisted of lung and bone legions in water. We calculated the dose received behind the lung and bone regions for 6 MV photon beams, in which the regions below the lung, water and bone received higher doses in this listed order. The result was the same for 10 MV photon beams. For the clinical application, the doses were calculated for the lung and pelvis. No difference was observed when using different electron density conversion tables with various CT voltages from a same CT. A relative dose difference of 1.5% was obtained when the CT machine for the density conversion table was different from that for the CT image for planning.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.65-69
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• 1997

Purpose : To obtain the actual dose distribution from measured data by doconvolution method using the measured ion chamber response function. Materials and Methods : The chamber response functions for 2 ionization chambers (diameter 5mm, 6.4mm) were measured. and dose Profiles were measured for $10{\times}20cm^2$ field size using two different detectors. The deconvolution of chamber response function from the measured data were performed for these Profiles. The same procedures were repeated for 4MV, 6MV and 1 SMV photon energies. Results : Different dose Profiles were obtained for the same field with the chambers which have the different response functions. Nearly the same results could be obtained with deconvolution for the profiles from various detectors. Conclusion : The effect of the chamber response function can be extracted by deconvolution method. Deconvolved dose profile using various ionization chambers gave better dose distributions. Technical improvements are needed for practical application.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2002

High energy photon beams from medical linear accelerators produce large scattered radiation by various components of the treatment head, collimator and walls or objects in the treatment room including the patient. These scattered radiation do not provide therapeutic dose and are considered a hazard from the radiation safety perspective. Scattered dose of therapeutic high energy radiation beams are contributed significant unwanted dose to the patient. ICRP take the position that a dose of 500mGy may cause abortion at any stage of pregnancy and that radiation detriment to the fetus includes risk of mental retardation with a possible threshold in the dose response relationship around 100 mGy for the gestational period. The ICRP principle of as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) was recommended for protection of occupation upon the linear no-threshold dose response hypothesis for cancer induction. We suggest this ALARA principle be applied to the fetus and testicle in therapeutic treatment. Radiation dose outside a photon treatment filed is mostly due to scattered photons. This scattered dose is a function of the distance from the beam edge, treatment geometry, primary photon energy, and depth in the patient. The need for effective shielding of the fetus and testicle is reinforced when young patients ate treated with external beam radiation therapy and then shielding designed to reduce the scattered photon dose to normal organs have to considered. Irradiation was performed in phantom using high energy photon beams produced by a Varian 2100C/D medical linear accelerator (Varian Oncology Systems, Palo Alto, CA) located at the Yonsei Cancer Center. The composite phantom used was comprised of a commercially available anthropomorphic Rando phantom (Phantom Laboratory Inc., Salem, YN) and a rectangular solid polystyrene phantom of dimensions $30cm{\times}30cm{\times}20cm$. the anthropomorphic Rando phantom represents an average man made from tissue equivalent materials that is transected into transverse 36 slices of 2.5cm thickness. Photon dose was measured using a Capintec PR-06C ionization chamber with Capintec 192 electrometer (Capintec Inc., Ramsey, NJ), TLD( VICTOREEN 5000. LiF) and film dosimetry V-Omat, Kodak). In case of fetus, the dosimeter was placed at a depth of loom in this phantom at 100cm source to axis distance and located centrally 15cm from the inferior edge of the $30cm{\times}30cm^2$ x-ray beam irradiating the Rando phantom chest wall. A acryl bridge of size $40cm{\times}40cm^2$ and a clear space of about 20 cm was fabricated and placed on top of the rectangular polystyrene phantom representing the abdomen of the patient. The leaf pot for testicle shielding was made as various shape, sizes, thickness and supporting stand. The scattered photon with and without shielding were measured at the representative position of the fetus and testicle. Measurement of radiation scattered dose outside fields and critical organs, like fetus position and testicle region, from chest or pelvic irradiation by large fie]d of high energy radiation beam was performed using an ionization chamber and film dosimetry. The scattered doses outside field were measured 5 - 10% of maximum doses in fields and exponentially decrease from field margins. The scattered photon dose received the fetus and testicle from thorax field irradiation was measured about 1 mGy/Gy of photon treatment dose. Shielding construction to reduce this scattered dose was investigated using lead sheet and blocks. Lead pot shield for testicle reduced the scatter dose under 10 mGy when photon beam of 60 Gy was irradiated in abdomen region. The scattered photon dose is reduced when the lead shield was used while the no significant reduction of scattered photon dose was observed and 2-3 mm lead sheets refuted the skin dose under 80% and almost electron contamination. The results indicate that it was possible to improve shielding to reduce scattered photon for fetus and testicle when a young patients were treated with a high energy photon beam.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.55-61
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• 2002

In this work, EPM (effective point of measurement) of parallel plate ionization chamber with three different spacing were investigated. If the plate separation is less than 2 mm one generally assumes that the effective point of measurement is just behind the front window of the parallel plate ionization chamber. For chamber with relatively large separation, such as the ones used for very accurate exposure measurements, this assumption breaks down and the EPM depends on plate separation and thickness of the front window. For parallel plate chambers, conventional theoretical analyses suggest that the EPM is the inner front wall and that it shifts towards the geometric centre of the chamber as the plate separation increases. The PP-IC (parallel plate ionization chamber) is fabricated using acrylic plate for the chamber medium and printed circuit board for electrical configuration. The various sizes of the sensitive volumes designed so far are 0.9, 1.9, and 3.1 cc. The gap between two electrodes ranges from 3, 6, and 10mm. Also the charge-to-voltage converter is designed to collect the electrons produced in the ionization chamber cavity. As the result of our experiment, the EPM shift was within 0.6 mm in photon beams and 0.4 mm to 2.5 mm in electron beams for the plate separation of 6 mm and 10 mm. EPM shifts towards the geometric center of the chamber as the plate separation increases.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 1998

The absolute absorbed dose can be determined according to the measurement conditions ; measurement material, detector, energy and calibration protocols. The purpose of this study is to compare the absolute absorbed dose due to the differences of measurement condition and calibration protocols for photon beams. Dosimetric measurements were performed with a farmer type PTW and NEL ionization chambers in water, solid water, and polystyrene phantoms using 6MV photon beams from Siemens linear accelerator. Measurements were made along the central axis of $10{\times}10cm$ field size for constant target to surface distance of 100cm for water, solid water and polystyrene phantom. Theoretical absorbed dose intercomparisons between TG21 and IAEA protocol were performed for various measurement combinations on phantom, ion chamber, and electrometer. There were no significant differences of absorbed dose value between TG2l and IAEA protocol. The differences between two protocols are within $1\%\;while\;the\;average\;value\;of\;IAEA\;protocol\;was\;0.5\%$ smaller than TG2l protocol. For the purpose of comparison, all the relative absorbed dose were nomalized to NEL ion chamber with Keithley electrometer and water phantom, The average differences are within $1\%,\;but\;individual\;discrepancies\;are\;in\;the\;range\;of\;-2.5\%\;to\;1.2\%$ depending upon the choice of measurement combination. The largest discrepancy of $-25\%$ was observed when NEL ion chamber with Keithley electrometer is used in solid water phantom. The main cause for this discrepancy is due to the use of same parameters of stopping power, absorption coefficient, etc. as used in water phantom. It should be mentioned that the solid water phantom is not recommended for absolute dose calibration as the alternative of water, since absorbed dose show some dependency on phantom material other than water. In conclusion, the trend of variation was not much dependent on calibration protocol. However, It shows that absorbed dose could be affected by phantom material other than water.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.96-101
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• 2011

In this study, we fabricated a fiber-optic phantom dosimeter by arraying square type of plastic optical fibers in a PMMA phantom for measuring relative depth doses of therapeutic photon beams. To minimize the cross-talk between fiber-optic dosimeters, we selected appropriate septum by measuring leaked scintillating lights according to the various kinds of septa. In addition, we measured percentage depth doses of 6, 15 MV photon beams using a fiber-optic phantom dosimeter.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.155-161
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• 1992

The eye lens is known to be radiosensitive organ and catarat can be induced by relatively low dose of radiation. In the treatment of head and neck tumors, shielding blocks are frequently used to minimize dose on sensitive organs. The shielding block, which is made of high atomic number materials (cerrobend), produce significant dose perturbations in megavoltage photon beams. The effects of these perturbations of eye shielding blocks are measured with film and ion chambers for the treatment of head and neck malignancies. Optimum parameters for the treatment are suggested.