Comparison of Dosimetry Characteristics from Some Bolus Materials for 6 and 10 MV Photons Beam Radiation Therapy

Abstract

In radiation therapy, bolus material is often used for increased surface dose, compensate for surface irregularities and internal heterogeneities. Bolus has properties equivalent to water and soft tissue. In this study, the mixture of Silicone Rubber (SR) and Bismuth was used for bolus fabrication and then compared to commercial boluses such as Paraffin, Play-Doh, and Paraffin Wax. The study aims to evaluate the comparison of relative electron density (RED), effective mass attenuation coefficient, transmission factor, percentage of surface dose (PSD), and Percentage Depth Dose (PDD) for all boluses. The bolus was made with the size 11 × 11 × 0.5 cm3. Physical density of the synthesized bolus was assessed by computerized tomography (CT) Scanning. The results of the RED analysis for the mixture of Silicone Rubber (SR) and Bismuth, Paraffin, Play-Doh, and Paraffin Wax were 0.954; 0.743; 0.933; and 0.878, respectively. The values of RED for all boluses has a similar to water and soft tissue. These results prove that the bolus is equivalent to soft tissue density such as fat, breast, lungs, and liver. Furthermore, for other dosimetry tests such as transmission factors and attenuation coefficients using Linear Accelerator (LINAC) with photon energy sources 6 and 10 MV. In general, Percentage of surface dose at 6 MV is higher than 10 MV. The highest percentage of the surface dose was achieved by paraffin wax at 6 MV energy by 85%. For effective mass attenuation coefficient result, the highest is the mixture of silicone rubber and bismuth at -0.0030 cm2/g for 6 MV and Play-Doh at -0.0114 cm2/g for 10 MV.