Publications (38)105.98 Total impact
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Article: Absorbed-dose beam quality conversion factors for cylindrical chambers in high energy photon beams.
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ABSTRACT: Recent working groups of the AAPM [Almond et al., Med. Phys. 26, 1847 (1999)] and the IAEA (Andreo et al., Draft V.7 of "An International Code of Practice for Dosimetry based on Standards of Absorbed Dose to Water," IAEA, 2000) have described guidelines to base reference dosimetry of high energy photon beams on absorbed dose to water standards. In these protocols use is made of the absorbed-dose beam quality conversion factor, kQ which scales an absorbed-dose calibration factor at the reference quality 60Co to a quality Q, and which is calculated based on state-of-the-art ion chamber theory and data. In this paper we present the measurement and analysis of beam quality conversion factors kQ for cylindrical chambers in high-energy photon beams. At least three chambers of six different types were calibrated against the Canadian primary standard for absorbed dose based on a sealed water calorimeter at 60Co [TPR10(20)=0.572, %dd(10)x=58.4], 10 MV [TPR10(20)=0.682, %dd(10)x=69.6), 20 MV (TPR10(20)=0.758, %dd(10)x= 80.5] and 30 MV [TPR10(20) = 0.794, %dd(10)x= 88.4]. The uncertainty on the calorimetric determination of kQ for a single chamber is typically 0.36% and the overall 1sigma uncertainty on a set of chambers of the same type is typically 0.45%. The maximum deviation between a measured kQ and the TG-51 protocol value is 0.8%. The overall rms deviation between measurement and the TG-51 values, based on 20 chambers at the three energies, is 0.41%. When the effect of a 1 mm PMMA waterproofing sleeve is taken into account in the calculations, the maximum deviation is 1.1% and the overall rms deviation between measurement and calculation 0.48%. When the beam is specified using TPR10(20), and measurements are compared with kQ values calculated using the version of TG-21 with corrected formalism and data, differences are up to 1.6% when no sleeve corrections are taken into account. For the NE2571 and the NE2611A chamber types, for which the most literature data are available, using %dd(10)x, all published data show a spread of 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively, over the entire measurement range, compared to spreads of up to 1.1% for both chambers when the kQ values are expressed as a function of TPR10(20). For the PR06-C chamber no clear preference of beam quality specifier could be identified. When comparing the differences of our kQ measurements and calculations with an analysis in terms of air-kerma protocols with the same underlying calculations but expressed in terms of a compound conversion factor CQ, we observe that a system making use of absorbed-dose calibrations and calculated kQ values, is more accurate than a system based on air-kerma calibrations in combination with calculated CQ (rms deviation of 0.48% versus 0.67%, respectively).Medical Physics 01/2001; 27(12):2763-79. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Dosimetric modeling of the microselectron high-dose rate 192Ir source by the multigroup discrete ordinates method.
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ABSTRACT: The DANTSYS multigroup discrete ordinates computer code is applied to quantitatively estimate the absorbed dose rate distributions in the vicinity of a microSelectron 192Ir high-dose-rate (HDR) source in two-dimensional cylindrical R-Z geometry. The source is modeled in a cylindrical water phantom of diameter 20 cm and height 20 cm. The results are also used for evaluation of the Task Group 43 (TG-43) dosimetric quantities. The DANTSYS accuracy is estimated by direct comparisons with corresponding Monte Carlo results. Our 210-group photon cross section library developed previously, together with angular quadratures consisting of 36 (S16) to 210 (S40) directions and associated weights per octant, are used in the DANTSYS simulations. Strong ray effects are observed but are significantly mitigated through the use of DANTSYS's stochastic ray-tracing first collision source algorithm. The DANTSYS simulations closely approximate Monte Carlo estimates of both direct dose calculations and TG-43 dosimetric quantities. The discrepancies with S20 angular quadrature (55 directions and weights per octant) or higher are shown to be less than +/- 5% (about 2.5 standard deviations of Monte Carlo calculations) everywhere except for limited regions along the Z axis of rotational symmetry, where technical limitations in the DANTSYS first collision source implementation makes adequate suppression of ray effects difficult to achieve. The efficiency of DANTSYS simulations is compared with that of the EGS4 Monte Carlo code. It is demonstrated that even with the 210-group cross section library, DANTSYS achieves two-fold efficiency gains using the the S20 quadrature set. The potential of discrete ordinates method for further efficiency improvements is also discussed.Medical Physics 11/2000; 27(10):2307-19. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Comparison of measured and Monte Carlo calculated dose distributions from the NRC linac.
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ABSTRACT: We have benchmarked photon beam simulations with the EGS4 user code BEAM [Rogers et al., Med. Phys. 22, 503-524 (1995)] by comparing calculated and measured relative ionization distributions in water from the 10 and 20 MV photon beams of the NRC linac. Unlike previous calculations, the incident electron energy is known independently to 1%, the entire extra-focal radiation is simulated, and electron contamination is accounted for. The full Monte Carlo simulation of the linac includes the electron exit window, target, flattening filter, monitor chambers, collimators, as well as the PMMA walls of the water phantom. Dose distributions are calculated using a modified version of the EGS4 user code DOSXYZ which additionally allows scoring of average energy and energy fluence in the phantom. Dose is converted to ionization by accounting for the (L/rho)water(air) variation in the phantom, calculated in an identical geometry for the realistic beams using a new EGS4 user code, SPRXYZ. The variation of (L/rho)water(air) with depth is a 1.25% correction at 10 MV and a 2% correction at 20 MV. At both energies, the calculated and the measured values of ionization on the central axis in the buildup region agree within 1% of maximum ionization relative to the ionization at 10 cm depth. The agreement is well within statistics elsewhere. The electron contamination contributes 0.35(+/- 0.02) to 1.37(+/- 0.03)% of the maximum dose in the buildup region at 10 MV and 0.26(+/- 0.03) to 3.14(+/- 0.07)% of the maximum dose at 20 MV. The penumbrae at 3 depths in each beam (in g/cm2), 1.99 (dmax, 10 MV only), 3.29 (dmax, 20 MV only), 9.79 and 19.79, agree with ionization chamber measurements to better than 1 mm. Possible causes for the discrepancy between calculations and measurements are analyzed and discussed in detail.Medical Physics 11/2000; 27(10):2256-66. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Monte Carlo study of correction factors for Spencer-Attix cavity theory at photon energies at or above 100 keV.
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ABSTRACT: To develop a primary standard for 192Ir sources, the basic science on which this standard is based, i.e., Spencer-Attix cavity theory, must be established. In the present study Monte Carlo techniques are used to investigate the accuracy of this cavity theory for photons in the energy range from 20 to 1300 keV, since it is usually not applied at energies below that of 137Cs. Ma and Nahum [Phys. Med. Biol. 36, 413-428 (1991)] found that in low-energy photon beams the contribution from electrons caused by photons interacting in the cavity is substantial. For the average energy of the 192Ir spectrum they found a departure from Bragg-Gray conditions of up to 3% caused by photon interactions in the cavity. When Monte Carlo is used to calculate the response of a graphite ion chamber to an encapsulated 192Ir source it is found that it differs by less than 0.3% from the value predicted by Spencer-Attix cavity theory. Based on these Monte Carlo calculations, for cavities in graphite it is concluded that the Spencer-Attix cavity theory with delta = 10 keV is applicable within 0.5% for photon energies at 300 keV or above despite the breakdown of the assumption that there is no interaction of photons within the cavity. This means that it is possible to use a graphite ion chamber and Spencer-Attix cavity theory to calibrate an 192Ir source. It is also found that the use of delta related to the mean chord length instead of delta = 10 keV improves the agreement with Spencer-Attix cavity theory at 60Co from 0.2% to within 0.1% of unity. This is at the level of accuracy of which the Monte Carlo code EGSnrc calculates ion chamber responses. In addition, it is shown that the effects of other materials, e.g., insulators and holders, have a substantial effect on the ion chamber response and should be included in the correction factors for a primary standard of air kerma.Medical Physics 09/2000; 27(8):1804-13. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Spectra and air-kerma strength for encapsulated 192Ir sources.
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ABSTRACT: The photon spectra in vacuum around four types of 192Ir HDR brachytherapy sources are calculated using the Monte Carlo code EGS4 and the most recent spectral information on 192Ir decay. The air-kerma strengths per unit activity are calculated based on the photon fluence around a bare 192Ir source and around each of four types of encapsulated sources using recent mass energy-absorption coefficients. For the full spectrum the bare vs encapsulated difference is up to 23% due to the large air-kerma contribution from the unfiltered low-energy photons. For the penetrating part of the photon spectrum (> 11.3 keV), the air-kerma strength per unit source activity on the transverse axis for a bare source is 2-15% higher than for the encapsulated sources due to the attenuation and absorption in the core and the encapsulating material. The contribution to the air-kerma strength from photons scattered in the capsule and from bremsstrahlung are calculated to increase the air-kerma strength by 2-4% and 0.2-0.3%, respectively. Air-kerma strengths for a variety of sources agree well with previously reported results for sources from Nucletron International, Best Industries, Inc., and Alpha-Omega Services, Inc. In addition we present air-kerma strengths for the present model of the HDR source from Nucletron International and the source from Varian Associates, Inc.Medical Physics 12/1999; 26(11):2441-4. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Monte Carlo investigation of electron beam output factors versus size of square cutout.
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ABSTRACT: A major task in commissioning an electron accelerator is to measure relative output factors versus cutout size (i.e., cutout factors) for various electron beam energies and applicator sizes. We use the BEAM Monte Carlo code [Med Phys. 22, 503-524 (1995)] to stimulate clinical electron beams and to calculate the relative output factors for square cutouts. Calculations are performed for a Siemens MD2 linear accelerator with beam energies, 6, 9, 11, and 13 MeV. The calculated cutout factors for square cutouts in 10 X 10 cm2, 15 X 15 cm2, and 20 X 20 cm2 applicators at SSDs of 100 and 115 cm agree with the measurements made using a silicon diode within about 1% except for the smallest cutouts at SSD= 115 cm where they agree within 0.015. The details of each component of the dose, such as the dose from particles scattered off the jaws and the applicator, the dose from contaminant photons, the dose from direct electrons, etc., are also analyzed. The calculations show that inphantom side-scatter equilibrium is a major factor for the contribution from the direct component which usually dominates the output of a beam. It takes about 6 h of CPU time on a Pentium Pro 200 MHz computer to simulate an accelerator and additional 2 h to calculate the relative output factor for each cutout with a statistical uncertainty of 1%.Medical Physics 06/1999; 26(5):743-50. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Correcting for electron contamination at dose maximum in photon beams.
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ABSTRACT: Data are presented to allow the photon beam quality specifier being used in the new AAPM TG-51 protocol, %dd(10)x, to be extracted from depth-dose data measured with a 1 mm lead foil either 50 cm or 30 cm from the phantom surface. %dd(10)x is the photon component of the percentage depth dose at 10 cm depth for a 10x10 cm2 field on the surface of a phantom at an SSD of 100 cm. The purpose of the foil is to remove the unknown electron contamination from the accelerator head. Monte Carlo calculations are done: (a) to show these electrons are reduced to a negligible level; (b) to calculate the amount of electron contamination from the lead foil at the depth of dose maximum; and (c) to calculate the effect of beam hardening on %dd(10). The analysis extends the earlier work of Li and Rogers [Med. Phys. 21, 791-798 (1994)] which only provided data for the foil at 50 cm. An error in the earlier Monte Carlo simulations is reported and a more convenient method of analyzing and using the data is presented. It is shown that 20% variations in the foil thickness have a negligible effect on the calculated corrections.Medical Physics 05/1999; 26(4):533-7. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Corrected relationship between %dd(10)x and stopping-power ratios.
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ABSTRACT: Kosunen and Rogers [Med. Phys. 20, 1181-1188 (1993)] presented a linear equation relating the Spencer-Attix water/air stopping power ratio to %dd(10)x, the photon component of the percentage depth-dose at 10 cm depth for a 10x10 cm2 field on the surface of a phantom at SSD=100 cm. This relationship has been used to calculate extensive tables of kQ factors for use with dosimetry protocols based on absorbed-dose calibration factors. Unfortunately, the original paper contained an error which has recently been assessed (Yang et al.). The present paper presents a corrected form of this relationship, viz.: (L/p)water(air)=1.275-0.00231[%dd(10)x] which is based on corrected values of %dd(10)x. It is shown that despite changes of up to 2% in calculated values of %dd(10)x, the net effect on calculated values of kQ is less than 0.2%.Medical Physics 05/1999; 26(4):538-40. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Effects of changes in stopping-power ratios with field size on electron beam relative output factors.
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ABSTRACT: Stopping-power ratios are a function of field size and vary with accelerators. To investigate how these variations affect relative output factor measurements made using ion chambers for electron beams, especially for small fields, (L/rho)air(water) is calculated using the Monte Carlo technique for different field sizes, beam energies, and accelerators and is compared to the data in TG-21 or TG-25, which are for mono-energetic broad beams. For very small field sizes defined by cutouts, if the change in (L/rho)air(water) with dmax is ignored (i.e., TG-25 is not carefully followed), there is an overestimate of relative output factors by up to 3%. Ignoring the field-size effect on stopping-power ratio adds an additional overestimate of up to one-half percent, and using mono-energetic stopping-power ratio data instead of realistic beam data gives another error, but in the opposite direction, of up to 0.7%. Due to the cancellation of these latter two errors, following TG-25 with (L/rho)air(water) data for broad mono-energetic beams will give the correct answer for the ROF measurement within 0.4% compared to using (L/rho)air(water) data for which the field-size effect is considered for realistic electron beams.Medical Physics 10/1998; 25(9):1711-6. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: A new approach to electron-beam reference dosimetry.
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ABSTRACT: A new approach is proposed for electron-beam dosimetry under reference conditions and data necessary to use this approach are presented. The approach has the following features; it uses ion chambers and starts from an absorbed-dose calibration factor for 60Co to be consistent with the present proposal for the new AAPM photon-beam protocol; it uses R50 to specify the beam quality and the reference depth, dref = 0.6R50 - 0.1 (all quantities in cm), recommended by Burns et al. [Med. Phys. 23, 383-388 (1996)]; it has a formalism which is parallel to the kQ formalism for photon-beam dosimetry; it fully accounts for the impact on stopping-power ratios of realistic electron beams; it allows an easy transition to using primary standards for absorbed dose to water in electron beams when these are available. The equation for dose to water under reference conditions is; DWQ = MPionPgrQk'R50kecalND,w60Co. The term PgrQ is not needed with plane-parallel chambers but corrects for gradient effects with cylindrical chambers and is measured in the user's beam. The parameter kecal is associated with converting the 60Co absorbed-dose calibration factor into one for an electron beam of quality Qe and contains most of the chamber to chamber variation. Calculated values of kecal are presented as well as Monte Carlo calculated Pwall values for plane-parallel chambers in a water phantom irradiated by a 60Co beam since these are needed to calculate kecal. The factor k'R50 is a function of R50 and converts the absorbed-dose calibration factor to that for the electron-beam quality of interest. Two analytical expressions are presented which are close to universal expressions for all cylindrical Farmer-like chambers and for well-guarded plane-parallel chambers respectively. Calculated values are presented graphically for electron beams with energies between 5 and 50 MeV.Medical Physics 03/1998; 25(3):310-20. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Accurate characterization of Monte Carlo calculated electron beams for radiotherapy.
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ABSTRACT: Monte Carlo studies of dose distributions in patients treated with radiotherapy electron beams would benefit from generalized models of clinical beams if such models introduce little error into the dose calculations. Methodology is presented for the design of beam models, including their evaluation in terms of how well they preserve the character of the clinical beam, and the effect of the beam models on the accuracy of dose distributions calculated with Monte Carlo. This methodology has been used to design beam models for electron beams from two linear accelerators, with either a scanned beam or a scattered beam. Monte Carlo simulations of the accelerator heads are done in which a record is kept of the particle phase-space, including the charge, energy, direction, and position of every particle that emerges from the treatment head, along with a tag regarding the details of the particle history. The character of the simulated beams are studied in detail and used to design various beam models from a simple point source to a sophisticated multiple-source model which treats particles from different parts of a linear accelerator as from different sub-sources. Dose distributions calculated using both the phase-space data and the multiple-source model agree within 2%, demonstrating that the model is adequate for the purpose of Monte Carlo treatment planning for the beams studied. Benefits of the beam models over phase-space data for dose calculation are shown to include shorter computation time in the treatment head simulation and a smaller disk space requirement, both of which impact on the clinical utility of Monte Carlo treatment planning.Medical Physics 04/1997; 24(3):401-16. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Electron fluence correction factors for conversion of dose in plastic to dose in water.
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ABSTRACT: In radiation dosimetry protocols, plastic is allowed as a phantom material for the determination of absorbed dose to water in electron beams. The electron fluence correction factor is needed in conversion of dose measured in plastic to dose in water. There are large discrepancies among recommended values as well as measured values of electron fluence correction factors when polystyrene is used as a phantom material. Using the Monte Carlo technique, we have calculated electron fluence correction factors for incident clinical beam energies between 5 and 50 MeV as a function of depth for clear polystyrene, white polystyrene and PMMA phantom materials and compared the results with those recommended in protocols as well as experimental values from published data. In the Monte Carlo calculations, clinical beams are simulated using the EGS4 user-code BEAM for a variety of medical accelerators. The study shows that our calculated fluence correction factor, phi pw, is a function of depth and incident beam energy Eo with little dependence on other aspects of beam quality. However the phi pw values at dmax are indirectly influenced by the beam quality since they vary with depth and dmax also varies with the beam quality. Calculated phi pw values at dmax are in a range of 1.005-1.045 for a clear polystyrene phantom, 1.005-1.038 for a white polystyrene phantom and 0.996-1.016 for a PMMA phantom. Our values of phi pw are about 1-2% higher than those determined according to the AAPM TG-25 protocol at dmax for clear or white polystyrene. Our calculated values of phi pw also explain some of the variations of measured data because of its depth dependence. A simple formula is derived which gives the electron fluence correction factor phi pw as a function of R50 at dmax or at the depth of 0.6R50-0.1 for any clinical electron beam with energy between 5 and 25 MeV for three plastics: clear polystyrene, white polystyrene and PMMA. The study also makes a careful distinction between phi pw and the corresponding IAEA Code of Practice quantity, hm.Medical Physics 03/1997; 24(2):161-76. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: R50 as a beam quality specifier for selecting stopping-power ratios and reference depths for electron dosimetry.
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ABSTRACT: For electron beam reference dosimetry in radiotherapy, it is shown that by choosing the reference depth as dref = 0.6R(50)-0.1 cm, where R50 is the half-value depth in centimeters, the Spencer-Attix water-to-air stopping-power ratio at dref is given by (Llp)airw = 1.2534 - 0.1487 (R50)0.2144. This is derived from data for (Llp)airw obtained from realistic Monte Carlo simulations for 24 clinical beams. The rms deviation of this expression from the Monte Carlo calculations is 0.16%, with a maximum deviation of 0.26%. This approach fully takes into account the spectral differences between real electron beams of the same R50 and allows an absorbed-dose calibration at a standards laboratory to be easily and accurately transferred to a reference clinical beam. Using a single parameter to specify (Llp)airw, rather than the two parameters (R50 and depth) needed when the reference depth is chosen as the depth of dose maximum, has the potential to greatly simplify electron beam dosimetry protocols and allows the use of a similar formalism for photon and electron beam dosimetry. For use in converting a depth-ionization curve into a depth-dose curve, a somewhat less accurate but general expression for (Llp)w(air) as a function of R50 and depth is presented.Medical Physics 04/1996; 23(3):383-8. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Mean energy, energy-range relationships and depth-scaling factors for clinical electron beams.
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ABSTRACT: Using Monte Carlo simulations we have studied the electron mean energy, Eo, and the most probable energy, Eo,p, at the phantom surface and their relationships with half-value depth, R50, and the practical range, Rp, for a variety of beams from five commercial medical accelerators with an energy range of 5-50 MeV. It is difficult to obtain a relation between R50 and Eo for all electrons at the surface because the number of scattered lower-energy electrons varies with the machine design. However, using only direct electrons to calculate Eo, there is a relationship which is in close agreement with that calculated using monoenergetic beams by Rogers and Bielajew [Med. Phys. 13, 687-694 (1986)]. We show that the empirical formula Eo,p = 0.22 + 1.98Rp + 0.0025R2p describes accurately the relationship between Rp and Eo,p for clinical beams of energies from 5 to 50 MeV with an accuracy of 3%. The electron mean energy, Ed, is calculated as a function of depth in water as well as plastic phantoms and is compared both with the relation, Ed = Eo (1-d/Rp), employed in AAPM protocols and with values in the IAEA Code of Practice. The conventional relations generally overestimate Ed over the entire therapeutic depth, e.g., the AAPM and IAEA overestimate Ed at dmax by up to 20% for an 18 MeV beam from a Clinac 2100C. It is also found that at all depths mean energies are 1%-3% higher near the field edges than at the central axis. We calculated depth-scaling factors for plastic phantoms by scaling the depth in plastics to the water-equivalent depth where the mean energies are equal. The depth-scaling factor is constant with depth in a given beam but there is a small variation ( < 1.5%) depending on the incident beam energies. Depth-scaling factors as a function of R50 in plastic or water are presented for clear polystyrene, white polystyrene and PMMA phantom materials. The calculated depth-scaling factor is found to be equal to R50water/R50plastic. This is just the AAPM definition of effective density but there are up to 2% discrepancies between our calculated values and those recommended by the AAPM and the IAEA protocols. We find that the depth-scaling factors obtained by using the ratio of continuous-slowing-down ranges are inaccurate and overestimate our calculated values by 1%-2% in all cases. We also find that for accurate work, it is incorrect to use a simple 1/r2 correction to convert from parallel beam depth-dose curves to point source depth-dose curves, especially for high-energy beams.Medical Physics 03/1996; 23(3):361-76. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Electron mass scattering powers: Monte Carlo and analytical calculations.
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ABSTRACT: Values of electron mass scattering power, T/p, for various materials have been calculated by using the EGS4 Monte Carlo system and by integration of the Molière multiple-scattering distribution. The energy range covered is 0.5-100 MeV. Monte Carlo calculations test the concept of T/p "experimentally" and assess the contribution to electron mass scattering power from effects such as Moller scatter and energy-loss straggling. The Monte Carlo results agree within 2% with the analytical results calculated from Molière multiple-scattering theory at energies less than 20 MeV for high-Z materials and for energies less than 50 MeV for low-Z materials. At higher energies the Monte Carlo calculations include the effects of bremsstrahlung production which can significantly increase values of T/p. For low-Z materials and electron energies less than 60 MeV, the Monte Carlo calculated T/p values are generally 22% higher than those given by ICRU Report 35, while those for high-Z materials and energies less than 25 MeV are found to be consistent (within 1%) with ICRU Report 35. The effects of Moller scatter, which significantly affect T/p for low-Z materials, as well as bremsstrahlung effects, are included in the present Monte Carlo calculations. If the tabulated T/p data of ICRU Report 35 are modified to include the Moller scatter effect, then for energies less than 60 MeV they are generally 6% less than the present Monte Carlo data for low-Z materials as well as for copper. It is shown that T/p is a well-defined constant over an appropriate range of slab thickness except when bremsstrahlung effects are significant. It is found that T/p is proportional to E-n, where n is in the range of 1.5-2.0 for the energies considered here. The Monte Carlo calculations are shown to agree well with various relevant experimental measurements. Accurate T/p data, which should include the effect of Moller scatter, are necessary in electron-beam treatment planning, especially for a small field size. The choice of the depth step in the implementation of pencil-beam codes should not violate the slab-thickness limits for T/p data.Medical Physics 06/1995; 22(5):531-41. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: BEAM: a Monte Carlo code to simulate radiotherapy treatment units.
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ABSTRACT: This paper describes BEAM, a general purpose Monte Carlo code to simulate the radiation beams from radiotherapy units including high-energy electron and photon beams, 60Co beams and orthovoltage units. The code handles a variety of elementary geometric entities which the user puts together as needed (jaws, applicators, stacked cones, mirrors, etc.), thus allowing simulation of a wide variety of accelerators. The code is not restricted to cylindrical symmetry. It incorporates a variety of powerful variance reduction techniques such as range rejection, bremsstrahlung splitting and forcing photon interactions. The code allows direct calculation of charge in the monitor ion chamber. It has the capability of keeping track of each particle's history and using this information to score separate dose components (e.g., to determine the dose from electrons scattering off the applicator). The paper presents a variety of calculated results to demonstrate the code's capabilities. The calculated dose distributions in a water phantom irradiated by electron beams from the NRC 35 MeV research accelerator, a Varian Clinac 2100C, a Philips SL75-20, an AECL Therac 20 and a Scanditronix MM50 are all shown to be in good agreement with measurements at the 2 to 3% level. Eighteen electron spectra from four different commercial accelerators are presented and various aspects of the electron beams from a Clinac 2100C are discussed. Timing requirements and selection of parameters for the Monte Carlo calculations are discussed.Medical Physics 06/1995; 22(5):503-24. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Calculation of stopping-power ratios using realistic clinical electron beams.
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ABSTRACT: The Spencer-Attix water/air restricted mass collision stopping-power ratio is calculated in realistic electron beams in the energy range from 5-50 MeV for a variety of clinical accelerators including the Varian Clinac 2100C, the Philips SL75-20, the Siemens KD2, the AECL Therac 20, and the Scanditronix Medical Microtron 50. The realistic clinical beams are obtained from full Monte Carlo simulations of the clinical linear accelerators using the code BEAM. The stopping-power ratios calculated using clinical beams are compared with those determined according to the AAPM and the IAEA protocols which were calculated by using monoenergetic parallel beams. Using the energy-range relationship of Rogers and Bielajew [Med. Phys. 13, 687-694 (1986)] leads to the most consistent picture in which the stopping-power ratios at dmax derived from mono-energetic calculations underestimate the stopping-power ratios calculated with the realistic beam by 0.3% at 5 MeV and up to 1.4% at 20 MeV. The stopping-power ratios at dmax determined according to the AAPM TG-21 protocol (1983) are shown to overestimate the realistic stopping-power ratios by up to 0.6% for a 5-MeV beam and underestimate them by up to 1.2% for a 20-MeV beam. Those determined according to the IAEA (1987) protocol overestimate the realistic stopping-power ratios by up to 0.3% for a 5-MeV beam and underestimate them by up to a 1.1% for a 20-MeV beam at reference depth. The causes of the differences in the stopping-power ratios between the realistic clinical mono-energetic beams are analyzed quantitatively. The changes in the stopping-power ratios at dmax are mainly due to the energy spread of the electron beam and the contaminant photons in the clinical beams. The effect of the angular spread of electrons is rather small except at the surface. Data are presented which give the corrected stopping-power ratios at dmax or reference depth starting from those determined according to protocols for any energy of clinical electron beams with scattering foils. For scanned clinical electron beams the correction to stopping-power ratios determined according to protocols is found to be less than 0.5% at dmax or reference depth for all beam energies studied. We quantify the differences in the stopping-power ratios determined using the depth of 50% ionization level and the depth of 50% dose level. The differences are very small except for very-high-energy beams (50 MeV) where they can be up to 0.8%.Medical Physics 06/1995; 22(5):489-501. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: Measurements of the electron dose distribution near inhomogeneities using a plastic scintillation detector.
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ABSTRACT: Accurate measurement of the electron dose distribution near an inhomogeneity is difficult with traditional dosimeters which themselves perturb the electron field. We tested the performance of a new high resolution, water-equivalent plastic scintillation detector which has ideal properties for this application. A plastic scintillation detector with a 1 mm diameter, 3 mm long cylindrical sensitive volume was used to measure the dose distributions behind standard benchmark inhomogeneities in water phantoms. The plastic scintillator material is more water equivalent than polystyrene in terms of its mass collision stopping power and mass scattering power. Measurements were performed for beams of electrons having initial energies of 6 and 18 MeV at depths from 0.2-4.2 cm behind the inhomogeneities. The detector reveals hot and cold spots behind heterogeneities at resolutions equivalent to typical film digitizer spot sizes. Plots of the dose distributions behind air, aluminum, lead, and formulations for cortical and inner bone-equivalent materials are presented. The plastic scintillation detector is suited for measuring the electron dose distribution near an inhomogeneity.International Journal of Radiation OncologyBiologyPhysics 08/1994; 29(5):1157-65. · 4.11 Impact Factor -
Article: Reducing electron contamination for photon beam-quality specification.
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ABSTRACT: The percentage depth dose at 10 cm in a 10 x 10-cm2 photon beam at an SSD of 100 cm, %dd(10), is a better beam-quality specifier for radiotherapy beams than the commonly used values of TPR10(20) or nominal accelerating potential. The presence of electron contamination affects the measurement of %dd(10) but can be removed by the use of a 0.1-cm lead filter, which reduces surface dose from contaminant electrons from the accelerator by more than 95% for radiotherapy beams with energies from 60Co to 50 MV. The filter performs best when it is placed immediately below the head. An electron-contamination correction factor is introduced to correct for electron contamination from the filter and air. It converts the %dd(10) which includes the electron contamination with the filter in place [hereafter %dd(10)m], into %dd(10) for just the photons in the filtered beam. The correction factor is a linear function of %dd(10)m for all filtered beams with %dd(10)m > 70%. A small correction for the photon filtering effect converts the pure photon %dd(10) for the filtered beam into that for the unfiltered beam, which can be used to determine stopping-power ratio. Calculations show that the values of water-to-air stopping power ratio in the unfiltered beam are related to the values of %dd(10)m in the filtered beam by a cubic function. The uncertainty of stopping-power ratios in unfiltered beams for the same value of the %dd(10)m is within 0.2% for all beams.Medical Physics 06/1994; 21(6):791-7. · 2.83 Impact Factor -
Article: The application of correlated sampling to the computation of electron beam dose distributions in heterogeneous phantoms using the Monte Carlo method.
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ABSTRACT: Although the Monte Carlo method is capable of computing the dose distribution in heterogeneous phantoms directly, there are some advantages to computing a heterogeneity correction factor. If this approach is adopted there are savings in time using correlated sampling. This technique forces histories to have the same energy, position, direction and random number seed as incident on both the heterogeneous and homogeneous water phantom. This ensures that a history that has, by chance, travelled through only water in the heterogeneous phantom will have the same path as it would have through the homogeneous phantom, resulting in a reduced variance when a ratio of heterogeneous dose to homogeneous dose is formed. Metrics to describe the distributions of uncertainty, efficiency, and degree of correlation are defined. EGS4 Monte Carlo calculation of the dose distribution from a 20 MeV electron beam on water phantoms containing aluminum or air slab heterogeneities illustrate that this technique is the most efficient when the heterogeneity is deep within the phantom, but that improved efficiency can be realized even when the heterogeneity is at or near the surface. This is because some correlation between the two histories is retained despite passage through the heterogeneity.Physics in Medicine and Biology 07/1993; 38(6):675-88. · 2.83 Impact Factor
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1999–2001
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National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD, USA
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1995–2001
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National Measurement Institute
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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1998–1999
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Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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1991–1999
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National Research Council Canada
- Institute for National Measurement Standards (INMS)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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1993
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University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Department of Medical Physics
Madison, MS, USA
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