title: Radiation dose to laterally transposed ovaries during external beam radiotherapy for cervical cancer.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to estimate the radiation dose to laterally transposed ovaries from external beam radiotherapy for cervical cancer. Dose measurements were performed in a modified humanoid phantom using a 6 MV photon beam. The dependence of the ovarian dose upon the field size, the distance from the primary irradiation field and the presence of wedges or gonadal shielding was determined. For a tumor dose of 45 Gy, ovarian dose was 0.88-8.51 Gy depending on the field size employed and the location of the transposed ovary in respect to the treatment field. Positioning of 7 cm thick shielding reduced the dose to ovary by less than 19%. The use of wedges increased the ovarian dose by a factor up to 1.5. Accurate radiographic localization of the ovaries allows the use of the presented dosimetric results to obtain a reasonable prediction of the ovarian dose.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, University Hospital of Iraklion, Iraklion, Crete, Greece. mazonak@med.uoc.gr
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mazonakis
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Damilakis
authors.forename: Haris
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Varveris
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gourtsoyiannis
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D010053:Ovary / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*