• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.240-248
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• 2003

The Monte Carlo calculation is the most accurate means of predicting radiation dose, but its accuracy is accompanied by an increase in the amount of time required to produce a statistically meaningful dose distribution. In this study, the effects on calculation time by introducing variance reduction techniques and increasing computing power, respectively, in the Monte Carlo dose calculation for a 6 MV photon beam from the Varian 600 C/D were estimated when maintaining accuracy of the Monte Carlo calculation results. The EGSnrc­based BEAMnrc code was used to simulate the beam and the EGSnrc­based DOSXYZnrc code to calculate dose distributions. Variance reduction techniques in the codes were used to describe reduced­physics, and a computer cluster consisting of ten PCs was built to execute parallel computing. As a result, time was more reduced by the use of variance reduction techniques than that by the increase of computing power. Because the use of the Monte Carlo dose calculation in clinical practice is yet limited by reducing the computational time only through improvements in computing power, introduction of reduced­physics into the Monte Carlo calculation is inevitable at this point. Therefore, a more active investigation of existing or new reduced­physics approaches is required.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2005

Purpose : Many authors have been introduced field in field technique and 3-D conformal radiotherapy that increased the tumor dose as well as decreased the dose of abutting critical organ. These technique have multiple beam direction and small beam segments even below 10 MU(monitor unit)for each field. we have confirmed the influence of low MU on dose output and beam stability. Materials and Methods : To study the dose output, the dose for each field was always 90MU, but it divided into different segment size: 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15 segments, 90, 45, 30, 18, 9, 6 MU the measurements were carried out for X-ray energy 4 MV, 6 MV, 10 MV of three LINAC(Varian 600C, 2100C, 2100C, 2100C/D), in addition each measurement was randomly repeated three times for each energy. To study the field symmetry and flatness, X-omat V films were irradiated. After being developed, films were scanned and analyzed using densitometer. Results : Influence of low MU on dose is slightly more increase output about $1.2{\sim}2.9%$ in cGy/mu than 90MU, but may not changed beam quality(flatness or symmetry), Output stability depends on dose rate(PRF)rather than beam energy, field size. Conclusion : Presented result are under the limits(out put<3%, flatness<${\pm}3%$, symmetry<2%). The 3 accelerators are safe to use and to perform conformal radiotherapy treatments in small segments, small MU around 10MU. but Even if the result presented here under the limits, continuous adjustments and periodic QA should be done for use of small MU

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.144-146
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• 2000

삼차원 입체조형치료는 정상조직의 장해를 최소화하고 종양부위에 집중적으로 조사할 수 있는 장점을 가지고 있어 임상 적용범위가 넓어지고 있다. 일반적으로 정상조직의 장해를 줄이기 위해 다양한 방사선 조사방향이 사용되며 특히 비 동일면상에서의 조사가 많이 이루어진다. 따라서 couch 회전이 동반되며 couch는 선형가속기의 다른 기계적 오차보다 많은 오차를 유발할 수 있는 잠재적인 위험을 안고 있다. 저자는 이러한 오차의 정도를 파악하고 이를 개선할 수 있는 방법에 대해 알아보고자 했다. couch 회전에 따른 Isocenter의 변화를 평가하기 위해 3대(Primus, Simens, USA/CL600c & 2100c, Varian, USA)의 선형가속기를 이용하였으며 이중 1대의 장비에는 couch 회전시 오차를 줄이기 위해 고안된 couch 고정장치를 장착하였다. 환자가 테이블에 부하를 주지 않은 상태에서 회전을 실시하여 Isocenter의 변화를 측정하고 환자가 테이블에 누워있는 상황을 재현하기 위해 human phantom을 위치시킨 후 동일한 회전검사를 실시하여 각각의 오차를 비교 분석하였다. 각 실험은 10회씩 반복 측정하여 평균치를 얻었으며 오차의 분석은 AAPM 권고안인 오차중심의 반경으로 표현했다. 3대의 선형가속기를 이용하여 얻은 결과 테이블에 부하를 주지 않은 상태의 회전오차는 평균 2mm, 3.2mm, 2mm로 측정되었으며 휴먼 phantom을 올려놓고 부하를 준 상태에서의 오차는 평균 2.1mm, 4mm, 2.1 mm이였다. 또한 고정장치를 이용한 상태에서의 평균오차는 1.9mm로 나타났다. 삼차원 입체조형치료 시 couch 회전에 따른 Isocenter 오차는 장비의 종류 및 작업자의 사용방법에 따라 다르게 나타났으며 테이블의 부하가 클수록 많은 오차를 보였다. 또한 couch 고정장치를 부착한 장비에서의 결과치 만이 AAPM에서 권고하는 오차의 한계에(${\le}2mm$) 들어감을 알 수 있었다. 따라서 정기적인 QA가 필수적이며 Couch Locking System과 같이 오차를 줄일 수 있는 보조장치의 부착이 많은 도움을 줄 것으로 생각된다. 아울러 이러한 오차를 보정할 수 있는 방법이 강구되어야 할 것으로 사료된다.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2006

A commercial ion chamber matrix was examined the characteristics and its performance for radiotherapy qualify assurance. The device was the I'mRT 2D-MatriXX (Scanditronix-Wellhofer, Schwarzenbruck, Germany). The 2D-MatriXX device consists of a 1020 vented ion chamber array, arranged in $24{\times}24cm^2$ matrix. Each ion chamber has a volume of $0.08cm^3$, spacing of 0.762 cm and minimum sampling time of 20 ms. For the investigation of the characteristics, dose linearity, output factor, short-term reproducibility and dose rate dependency were tested. In the testing of dose linearity. It has shown a good signal linearity within 1% in the range of $1{\sim}800$cGy. Dose rate dependency was found to be lower than 0.4% (Range: 100-600 Mu/min) relative to a dose rate of 300 Mu/min as a reference. Output factors matched very well within 0.5% compared with commissioned beam data using a ionization chamber (CC01, Scanditronix-Wellhofer, Schwarzenbruck, Germany) in the range of field sizes $3{\times}3{\sim}24{\times}24cm^2$. Short-term reproducibility (6 times with a interval of 15 minute) was also shown a good agreement within 0.5%, when the temperature and the pressure were corrected by each time of measurement. in addition, we compared enhanced dynamic wedge (EDW, Varian, Palo Alto, USA) profiles from calculated values in the radiation planning system with those from measurements of the MatriXX. Furthermore, anon-uniform IMRT dose fluence was tested. All the comparison studies have shown good agreements. In this study, the MatriXX was evaluated as a reliable dosimeter, and it could be used as a simplistic and convenient tool for radiotherapy qualify assurance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.116-118
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• 2002

It has been noted that Monte Carlo simulations are the most accurate method to calculate dose distributions in any material and geometry. Monte Carlo transport algorithms determine the absorbed dose by following the path of representative particles as they travel through the medium. Accurate Monte Carlo dose calculations rely on detailed modeling of the radiation source. We modeled the effects of beam modifiers such as collimators, blocks, wedges, etc. of our accelerator, Varian Clinac 600C/D to ensure accurate representation of the radiation source using the EGSnrc based BEAM code. These were used in the EGSnrc based DOSXYZ code for the simulation of particles transport through a voxel based Cartesian coordinate system. Because Monte Carlo methods use particle-by-particle methods to simulate a radiation transport, more particle histories yield the better representation of the actual dose. But the prohibitively long time required to get high resolution and accuracy calculations has prevented the use of Monte Carlo methods in the actual clinical spots. Our ultimate aim is to develop a Monte Carlo dose calculation system designed specifically for radiation therapy planning, which is distinguished from current dose calculation methods. The purpose of this study in the present phase was to get dose calculation results corresponding to measurements within practical time limit. We used parallel processing and some variance reduction techniques, therefore reduced the computational time, preserving a good agreement between calculations of depth dose distributions and measurements within 5% deviations.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.216-223
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• 2011

Recently PTW developed a MicroLion liquid ionization chamber which is water_equivalent and has a small sensitive volume of $0.002cm^3$. The aim of this work is to investigate such dosimetric characteristics as dose linearity, dose rate dependency, spatial resolution, and output factors of the chamber for the external radiotherapy photon beam. The results were compared to those of Semiflex chamber, Pinpoint chamber and Diode chamber with the sensitive volumes of $0.125cm^3$, $0.03cm^3$ and $0.0025cm^3$, respectively and evaluated to be suitable for small fields. This study was performed in the 6MV photon energy from a Varian 2300 C/D linac accelerator and the MP3 water phantom (PTW, Freiburg) was used. Penumbras in the varios field sizes ranged from $0.5{\times}0.5cm^2$ to $10{\times}10cm^2$ were used to evaluate the spatial resolution. Output factors were measured in the field sizes of $0.5{\times}0.5$ to $40{\times}40cm^2$. Readings of the chamber was linearly proportional to dose. Dose rate dependency was measured from 100 MU/min to 600 MU/min, showed a maximum difference of 5.0%, and outputs decreased with dose rates. The spatial resolutions determined with comparing profiles for the field sizes of $0.5{\times}0.5cm^2$ to $10{\times}10cm^2$ agreed between every detector except the Semiflex chamber to within 2%. Outputs of detectors were compared to that of Semiflex chamber and showed good agreements within 2% for every chamber. This study shows that MicroLion chamber characterized by a high signal-to-noise ratio and water equivalence could be suitable for the small field dosimetry.

• 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.