Study of the dosimetric properties of an unflattened 6-MV photon beam by using the BEAMnrc code

Abstract

This study investigated the basic dosimetric properties of a Flattening-filter-free 6-MV photon beam based on the unique performance model of the Varian Clinic 600 linac operated with and without a flattening filter. Dosimetric features, including the central-axis absorbed dose, the beam profiles and the photon and electron fluences were calculated for the flattened and unflattened cases separately by using Monte Carlo simulations. We observe that the dosimetric field size and penumbra were slightly smaller for the unflattened beam, but the beam’s non-flatness is unlikely to present a problem for treatments with small fields. Absolute depth dose calculations showed an increase in the dose rate by a factor of more than 2.4 for the unflattened 6-MV beam which depended on the depth. These results suggest that the removal of the filter could result in higher central-axis dose rates and hence, shorter beam delivery times for treatments. Surface doses were found to be higher for the unflattened beam due to more contamination electrons and low-energy photons being present in the beam. The total scatter factor, SCP, varies less with the field sizes, indicating that removing the filter from the beam line can reduce significantly the amount of head scatter photons and therefore, doses to normal tissues and organs.