title: Measurement of scatter factors for 4, 6, 10, and 23 MV x rays at scattering angles between 30 degrees and 135 degrees.
abstract: NCRP Report No. 49, published in 1976, describes how to calculate the shielding for the medical use of x rays and gamma rays for energies up to 10 MV, including primary, scattered, and leakage radiation. However, in that report, data for scattered radiation for linear accelerators exist only for 6 MV, and leakage radiation is assumed, incorrectly, to be equivalent to primary radiation. Since the publication of that report, linear accelerators with energies up to 25 MV have been widely used in the radiation therapy community. Thus, there is a need to measure additional data for all energies in the range 4-25 MV. In this study, measurements were made of the "a" factor for 4, 6, 10, and 23 MV x rays at scattering angles between 30 degrees and 135 degrees. The results show that the 6 and 10 MV "a" factor data are consistent with published data, and the 23 MV data are also consistent with recently published data at 18 and 25 MV. The data show that, in general, the "a" factor decreases with energy; the exception is that 23 MV data show a sharp increase at low scattering angles, much greater than at other energies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.
authors.forename: I P
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: Nogueira
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Biggs
mesh_terms: D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D014965:X-Rays