title: Comparison of high-energy photon and electron dosimetry for various dosimetry protocols.
abstract: The American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 51 (TG-51) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a new high-energy photon and electron dosimetry protocol, in 1999 and 2000, respectively. These protocols are based on the use of an ion chamber having an absorbed-dose to water calibration factor with a 60Co beam. These are different from the predecessors, the TG-21 and IAEA TRS-277 protocols, which require a 60Co exposure or air-kerma calibration factor. The purpose of this work is to present the dose comparison between various dosimetry protocols and the AAPM TG-51 protocol for clinical reference dosimetry of high-energy photon and electron beams. The absorbed-dose to water calculated according to the Japanese Association of Radiological Physics (JARP), International Atomic Energy Agency Technical Report Series No. 277 (IAEA TRS-277) and No. 398 (IAEA TRS-398) protocols is compared to that calculated using the TG-51 protocol. For various Farmer-type chambers in photon beams, TG-51 is found to predict 0.6-2.1% higher dose than JARP. Similarly, TG-51 is found to be higher by 0.7-1.7% than TRS-277. For electron beams TG-51 is higher than JARP by 1.5-3.8% and TRS-277 by 0.2-1.9%. The reasons for these differences are presented in terms of the cavity-gas calibration factor, Ngas, and a dose conversion factor, Fw, which converts the absorbed-dose to air in the chamber to the absorbed-dose to water. The ratio of cavity-gas calibration factors based on absorbed-dose to water calibration factors, N60Co(D,w), in TG-51 and cavity-gas calibration factors which are equivalent to absorbed-dose to air chamber factors, N(D,air), based on the IAEA TRS-381 protocol is 1.008 on average. However, the estimated uncertainty of the ratio between the two cavity-gas calibration factors is 0.9% (1 s.d.) and consequently, the observed difference of 0.8% is not significant. The absorbed-dose to water and exposure or air-kerma calibration factors are based on standards traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In contrast, the absorbed-dose to water determined with TRS-398 is in good agreement with TG-51 within about 0.5% for photon and electron beams.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California Davis Cancer Center, Sacramento 95817, USA. araki@cms.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Fujio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Araki
authors.forename: H Dale
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Kubo
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D004583:Electrons / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D017785:Photons / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water