Verification of dosimetric methodology for auditing radiotherapy quality under non-reference condition in Hubei province

Abstract

Objective To verify the reliability of TLD-based quality audit for radiotherapy dosimetry of medical electron accelerator in non-reference condition by monitoring the dose variations from electron beams with different field sizes and 45° wedge and the dose variations from photon beams with different field sizes and source-skin distance.Methods Both TLDs and finger ionization chambers were placed at a depth of 10 cm in water to measure the absorbed dose from photon beams,and also placed at the depth of maximum dose from electron beams under non-reference condition.TLDs were then mailed to National Institute for Radiological Protection,China CDC for further measurement.Results Among the 70 measuring points for photon beams,58 points showed the results with a relative error less than ± 7.0％ (IAEA's acceptable deviation:± 7.0％) between TLDs and finger ionization chambers measurements,and the percentage of qualified point numbers was 82.8％.After corrected by P,value,62 points were qualified and the percentage was up to 88.6％.All of the measuring points for electron beams,with the total number of 24,presented a relative error within ± 5.0％ (IAEA's acceptable deviation:± 5.0％) between TLDs and finger ioization cylindrical chambers measurements.Conclusions TLD-based quality audit is convenient for determining radiotherapy dosimetric parameters of electron beams in non-reference condition and can improve the accuracy of the measuring parameters in connection with finger chambers.For electron beams of 5 MeV ＜ E0 ＜ 10 MeV,the absorbed dose parameters measured by finger ionization chambers,combined with TLD audit,can help obtain the precise and reliable results. Key words: Non-reference condition ; Finger ionization chamber; Photon beams ; Electron beams; Absorbed dose