Calculation of the dose in the build-up region for high energy photon beam. Treatment planning when beam spoilers are employed

Abstract

Recoil electrons from a polystyrene sheet (beam spoiler) placed in a photon beam were used to modulate the dose in the build-up region. The effects of the beam spoiler on the dosimetry in simple phantoms were studied for both 6 MV and 15 MV photon beams at 100 cm source-to-surface distance (SSD) as a function of (1) the thickness of the spoiler, (2) the spoiler-to-surface distance (SD) and (3) the field size. A radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) algorithm was used that employs pencil beam dose deposition kernels to evaluate the three-dimensional (3D) dose distribution due to photons and electrons in the build-up region. To determine the energy deposition kernels for the recoil electrons emanating from the spoiler, their energy spectrum needs to be known. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to derive the spectrum of electrons from the beam spoiler. The recoil electron spectrum was found to be nearly independent of field size, SD, and spoiler thickness. The pencil beam energy deposition kernel was calculated for the recoil electrons from the spoiler and inserted in the treatment planning algorithm. The dose calculation algorithm permits merging the photon and recoil electron dose components. In all cases the calculation agrees to within 3% of the measured results.