• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.135-144
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• 2020

Purpose: Gafchromic films for proton dosimetry are dependent on linear energy transfers (LETs), resulting in dose underestimation for high LETs. Despite efforts to resolve this problem for single-energy beams, there remains a need to do so for multi-energy beams. Here, a bimolecular reaction model was applied to correct the under-response of spread-out Bragg peaks (SOBPs). Methods: For depth-dose measurements, a Gafchromic EBT3 film was positioned in water perpendicular to the ground. The gantry was rotated at 15° to avoid disturbances in the beam path. A set of films was exposed to a uniformly scanned 112-MeV pristine proton beam with six different dose intensities, ranging from 0.373 to 4.865 Gy, at a 2-cm depth. Another set of films was irradiated with SOBPs with maximum energies of 110, 150, and 190 MeV having modulation widths of 5.39, 4.27, and 5.34 cm, respectively. The correction function was obtained using 150.8-MeV SOBP data. The LET of the SOBP was then analytically calculated. Finally, the model was validated for a uniform cubic dose distribution and compared with multilayered ionization chamber data. Results: The dose error in the plateau region was within 4% when normalized with the maximum dose. The discrepancy of the range was <1 mm for all measured energies. The highest errors occurred at 70 MeV owing to the steep gradient with the narrowest Bragg peak. Conclusions: With bimolecular model-based correction, an EBT3 film can be used to accurately verify the depth dose of scanned proton beams and could potentially be used to evaluate the depth-dose distribution for patient plans.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.21-34
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• 2008

The parallel Monte Carlo electron and photon transport (PMCEPT) code [Kum and Lee, J. Korean Phys. Soc. 47, 716 (2006)] for calculating electron and photon beam doses has been developed based on the three dimensional geometry defined by computed tomography (CT) images and implemented on the Beowulf PC cluster. Understanding the limitations of Monte Carlo codes is useful in order to avoid systematic errors in simulations and to suggest further improvement of the codes. We evaluated the PMCEPT code by comparing its normalized depth doses for electron and photon beams with those of MCNP5, EGS4, DPM, and GEANT4 codes, and with measurements. The PMCEPT results agreed well with others in homogeneous and heterogeneous media within an error of $1{\sim}3%$ of the dose maximum. The computing time benchmark has also been performed for two cases, showing that the PMCEPT code was approximately twenty times faster than the MCNP5 for 20-MeV electron beams irradiated on the water phantom. For the 18-MV photon beams irradiated on the water phantom, the PMCEPT was three times faster than the GEANT4. Thus, the results suggest that the PMCEPT code is indeed appropriate for both fast and accurate simulations.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.109-120
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• 1991

Total body irradiation is operated to irradicate malignant cells of bone marrow of patients to be treated with bone marrow transplantation. Field size of a linear accelerator or cobalt teletherapy unit with normal geometry for routine technique is too small to cover whole body of a patient. So, any special method to cover patient whole body must be developed. Because such environments as room conditions and machine design are not universal, some characteristic method of TBI for each hospital could be developed. At Seoul National University Hospital, at present, only a cobalt unit is available for TBI because source head of the unit could be tilted. When the head is tilted outward by 90$^{\circ}$, beam direction is horizontal and perpendicular to opposite wall. Then, the distance from cobalt source to the wall was 319 cm. Provided that the distance from the wall to midsagittal plane of a patient is 40cm, nominal field size at the plane(SCD 279cm) is 122cm$\times$122cm but field size by measurement of exposure profile was 130cm$\times$129cm and vertical profile was not symmetric. That field size is large enough to cover total body of a patient when he rests on a couch in a squatting posture. Assuming that average lateral width of patients is 30cm, percent depth dose for SSD 264cm and nominal field size 115.5cm$\times$115.5cm was measured with a plane-parallel chamber in a polystyrene phantom and was linear over depth range 10～20cm. An anthropomorphic phantom of size 25cm wide and 30cm deep. Depth of dose maximum, surface dose and depth of 50% dose were 0.3cm, 82% and 16.9cm, respectively. A dose profile on beam axis for two opposing beams was uniform within 10% for mid-depth dose. Tissue phantom ratio with reference depth 15cm for maximum field size at SCD 279cm was measured in a small polystyrene phantom and was linear over depth range 10～20cm. An anthropomorphic phantom with TLD chips inserted in holes on the largest coronal plane was bilaterally irradiated by 15 minute in each direction by cobalt beam aixs in line with the cross line of the coronal plane and contact surface of sections No. 27 and 28. When doses were normalized with dose at mid-depth on beam axis, doses in head/neck, abdomen and lower lung region were close to reference dose within $\pm$ 10% but doses in upper lung, shoulder and pelvis region were lower than 10% from reference dose. Particulaly, doses in shoulder region were lower than 30%. On this result, the conclusion such that under a geometric condition for TBI with cobalt beam as SNUH radiotherapy departement, compensators for head/neck and lung shielding are not required but boost irradiation to shoulder is required could be induced.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2003

I. Purpose Uniform dose distribution of the whole body is essential factor for the total body irradiation(TBI). In order to achieved this goal, we used to compensation filter to compensate body contour irregularity and thickness differences. But we can not compensate components of body, namely lung or bone. The purpose of this study is evaluation of dose attenuation in bone tissue when TBI using diode detectors and TLD system. II. Materials and Methods The object of this study were 5 patients who undergo TBI at our hospital. Dosimetry system were diode detectors and TLD system. Treatment method was bilateral and delivered 10MV X-ray from linear accelerator. Measurement points were head, neck, pelvis, knees and ankles. TLD used two patients and diode detectors used three patients. III. Results Results are as followed. All measured dose value were normalized skin dose. TLD dosimetry : Measured skin dose of head, neck, pelvis, knees and ankles were $92.78{\pm}3.3,\;104.34{\pm}2.3,\;98.03{\pm}1.4,\;99.9{\pm}2.53,\;98.17{\pm}0.56$ respectably. Measured mid-depth dose of pelvis, knees and ankles were $86{\pm}1.82,\;93.24{\pm}2.53,\;91.50{\pm}2.84$ respectably. There were $6.67\%{\sim}11.65\%$ dose attenuation at mid-depth in pelvis, knees and ankles. Diode detector : Measured skin dose of head, neck, pelvis, knees and ankles were $95.23{\pm}1.18,\;98.33{\pm}0.6,\;93.5{\pm}1.5,\;87.3{\pm}1.5,\;86.90{\pm}1.16$ respectably. There were $4.53\%{\sim}12.6\%$ dose attenuation at mid-depth in pelvis, knees and ankles. IV. Conclusion We concluded that dose measurement with TLD or diode detector was inevitable when TBI treatment. Considered dose attenuation in bone tissue, We must have adequately deduction of compensator thickness that body portion involved bone tissue.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.123-132
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• 1989

A radiation beam incident on an irregular or sloping surface produces the non-uniformity of absorded dose. The use of a tissue compensator can partially correct this dose inhomogeneity. The tissue compensator is designed based on the patient's three dimensional contour. After required compensator thickness was determined according to tissue deficit at $25cm\pm25cm$ field size, 10cm depth for 6MV x-rays, tissue deficit was mapped by isoheight technique using laser beam system. Compensator was constructed along the designed model using 0.8mm lead sheet or 5mm acryl plate. Dosimetric verification were peformed by film dosimetry using humanoid phantom. Dosimetric measurements were normalized to central axis full phantom readings for both compensated and non-compensated field. Without compensation, the percent differences in absorbed dose ranged as high as $12.1\%$ along transverse axis, $10.8\%$ along vertical axis. With the tissue compensators in place, the difference was reduced to $0\~43\%$ Therefore, it can be concluded that the compensator system constructed by isoheihnt technique can produce good dose distribution with acceptible inhomogeneity, and such compensator system can be effectively applied to clinical radiotherapy.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2007

Purpose: This study investigates peripheral dose from physical wedge and dynamic wedge system on a multileaf collimator (MLC) equipment linear accelerator. Materials and Methods: Measurments were performed using a 2D array ion chamber and solid water phantom for a 10$\times$10 cm, source-surface distance (SSD) 90 cm, 6 and 15 MV photon beam at depths of 0.5 cm, 5 cm through dmax. Measurments of peripheral dose at 0.5 cm and 5 cm depths were performed from 1 cm to 5 cm outside of fields for the dynamic wedge and physical wedge 15$^\circ$, 45$^\circ$. Dose profiles normalized to dose at the maximum depth. Results: At 6 MV photon beam, the average peripheral dose of dynamic wedge were lower by 1.4% and 0.1%. At 15 MV photon beam, the peripheral dose of dynamic wedge were lower by maximum 1.6%. Conclusion: This study showed that dynamic wedge can reduce scattered dose of clinical organ close to the field edge and reduced treatment time. The wedge systems produce significantly different peripheral dose that should be considered in properly choosing a wedge system for clinical use.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.34-48
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• 1982

The prime purpose of this study is to realize an index quantity, absorbed dose index, defined by the ICRU for the characterization of ambient radiation level at any location for the purpose of radiation protection. The experiment has been designed to be carried out in two phases, namely, preliminary and main experiment. In the primary study a 30cm diameter sphere of polyethylene was used, while in the main experiment that of tissue equivalent material was fabricated and used. Both experiments were performed in the gamma-ray fields of $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$, and in a neutron beam of thermal column of the TRIGA MARK-II research reactor. In the measurement of gamma-ray absorbed dose TLD-700 $(^{7}LiF)$ chips were used, and for the neutron dose both Au activation foils and TLD chips (TLD-600 $(^{6}LiF)$ and TLD-700 for the discrimination of gamma-ray contribution) were used. Theoretical assessment of the absorbed dose in the sphere phantom has been carried out in accordance with the Ehrlich's idea that deduced on the basis of Burlin's cavity theory in the case of gamma-ray irradiation. For the analysis of neutron dose fluence-KERMA rate conversion method was used. The explanation on the dose assessment is given in detail. Results obtained were numerically and statistically analyzed and the depth dose distributions are presented in the graphic forms with normalized values. In the concluding remarks, the possibility and difficulty of realizing the index quantity, including questions and problems to be solved are mentioned.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.225-232
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• 2014

We evaluated the effect of scatter on a build-up region based on the measured percent depth dose (PDD) of high-energy photon beams that penetrated a handmade build-up modifier (BM) as a substitute of bolus. BM scatter factors ($S_{BM}$) were calculated based on the PDDs of photon beams that penetrated through the BM. The calculated $S_{BM}$ values were normalized to 1 at the square field side (SFS) of 30 mm without a BM. For the largest SFS (200 mm), the SBM values for a 6-MV beam were 1.331, 1.519, 1.598, 1.641, and 1.657 for the corresponding BM thickness values. For a 10-MV beam, the $S_{BM}$ values were 1.384, 1.662, 1.825, 1.913, and 2.001 for the corresponding BM thickness values. The BM yielded 76% of the bolus efficiency. We expect BM to become useful devices for deep-set patient body parts to which it is difficult to apply a bolus.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2010

In this paper we evaluated small field dose characteristics of exclusive cone fields versus square fields for stereotactic radiosugery (SRS) which is based on linear accelerators (LINAC). For this test, we used a small beam detector (stereotactic fields detector : SFD) with a 6 MV photon beam and a water phantom system (IBA, Germany). Percentage depth dose (PDD) was measured for different field sets (cones : ${\Phi}1\;cm$, ${\Phi}2\;cm$, ${\Phi}3\;cm$ ; square fields : $1{\times}1\;cm^2$, $2{\times}2\;cm^2$, $3{\times}3\;cm^2$) at a source skin distance (SSD) of 100 cm. We measured the point depths at 1.5 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm. The output factors were measured under the same geometrical conditions of the PDD and normalized at the maximum dose depth. To analyze the penumbra, we measured the dose profile with 95 cm of SSD, 5 cm of depth for each field sizes (${\Phi}1\;cm$, ${\Phi}3\;cm$, $1{\times}1\;cm^2$, and $3{\times}3\;cm^2$) using SFD. We obtained the values for every 1 mm interval in the physical field (90%) and 0.5 mm interval in the penumbra region (20 to 80%). The PDD variation of exclusive cones and square fields were 4.3 to 7.9% lesser than the standard field size ($10{\times}10\;cm^2$. The variation of PDD was reduced while the field size was increased. To compare the beam quality, we analyzed the $PDD_{20,10}$ and the results showed under the 1% of variations for all experiments except for ${\Phi}1\;cm$ cone and $1{\times}1\;cm^2$ fields. Output factors of exclusive cone were increased 3.1~4.6% than the square fields, and the penumbra region of exclusive cone was reduced 20% as compared to the square fields. As the previous researches report, it is very important for SRS and SFD that precise dosimetry in small beam fields. In this paper, we showed the effectiveness of exclusive cone, compared to square field. And we will study on the various detector characteristics for small beam fields.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.393-402
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• 1997

Purpose : When an x-ray beam of small field size is irradiated to target area containing an air cavity, such as larynx, the underdosing effect is observed in the region near the interfaces of air and soft tissue. With a larynx model, air cavity embedded in tissue-equivalent material, this study is intonded for examining Parameters, such as beam quality, field size, and cavity size, to affect the dose distribution near the air cavity. Materials and Methods : Three x-rar beams, 4-, 6- and 10-MV, were employed to Perform a measurement using a 2cm $(width){\times}L$ (length in cm, one side of x-ray field used 2cm (height) air cavity in the simulated larynx. A thin window parallel-plate chamber connected to an electrometer was used for a dosimetry system. A ratio of the dose at various distances from the cavity-tissue interface to the dose at the same points in a homogeneous Phantom (ebservedlexpected ratio, O/E) normalized buildup curves, and ratio of distal surface dose to dose at the maximum buildup depth were examined for various field sizes. Measurement for cavity size effect was performed by varying the height (Z) of the air cavity with the width kept constant for several field sizes. Results : No underdosing effect for 4-MV beam for fields larger than $5cm\times5cm$ was found For both 6- and 10-MV beams, the underdosing portion of the larynx at the distal surface was seen to occur for small fields, $4cm\times4cm\;and\;5cm\times5cm$. The underdosed tissue was increased in its volume with beam energy even for similar surface doses. The relative distal surface dose to maximum dose was changed to 0.99 from 0.95, 0.92, and 0.91 for 4-, 6-, and 10-MV, respectively, with increasing field size, $4cm\times4cm\;to\;8cm\times8cm$, For 6- and 10-MV beams, the dose at the surface of the cavity is measured less than the predicted by about two and three percent. respectively. but decrease was found for 4-MV beam for $5cm\times5cm$ field. For the $4cm\timesL\timesZ$ (height in cm). varying depth from 0.0 to 4.8cm, cavity, O/E> 1.0 was observed regardless of the cavity size for any field larger than about $8cm\times8cm$. Conclusion : The magnitude of underdosing depends on beam energy, field size. and cavity size for the larynx model. Based on the result of the study. caution must be used when a small field of a high quality x-ray beam is irradiated to regions including air cavities. and especially the region where the tumor extends to the surface. Low quality beam. such as. 4-MV x-ray, and larger fields can be used preferably to reduce the risk of underdosing, local failure. In the case of high quality beams such as 6- and 10-MV x-rays, however. an additional boost field is recommended to add for the compensation of the underdosing region when a typically used treatment field. $8cm\times8cm$, is employed.