SU‐E‐T‐612: Photonuclear Activation of Prosthetic Hips in Radiotherapy

Abstract

Purpose:To measure the neutron induced activation of a prosthetic hip when exposed to an 18 MV radiotherapy linac beam to assess the potential dose to patients.Methods:A prosthetic hip (Thackray, UK) was placed in a water phantom and irradiated (both in‐field and out‐of‐field) with an 18 MV linac beam. Gamma spectroscopy was used to identify the radioisotopes produced. Following the in‐field irradiation where the induced activity is higher, high sensitivity lithium fluoride Thermoluminescence Dosimeters (TLD‐100H) (Harshaw, USA) were placed on the surface to measure the dose which would be deposited to nearby tissue resulting from the induced radioactivity.Results:The radioisotopes produced in the hip prosthesis have been identified as 52V, 53Fe, and 56Mn which have half‐lives of 3.74, 8.51 and minutes respectively. The 378 and 511 keV characteristic peaks of 53Fe do not appear in the spectra collected from hips irradiated in the out‐of‐field region. This isotope is produced by photonuclear interactions within the hip itself. 52V and 56Mn appear in spectra collected from hips irradiated either within the photon beam or in the nearby out‐of‐field region, implying that they are produced by incident neutron radiation produced in components of the linear accelerator.The integrated dose which would be deposited in the tissue immediately surrounding the hip after four hours (1.5 half‐lives of the longest lived product) was measured as approximately 100 µGy, following a 10,000 MU irradiation of the prosthesis. A highly accurate measurement of the dose is challenging because of the irregular shape of the prosthesis.Conclusion:The cumulative dose measured at the surface of the hip is 0.0001% of the in‐field dose, and is therefore negligible compared with the doses the patient receives as a consequence of their treatment.