title: Inclusion of compensator-induced scatter and beam filtration in pencil beam dose calculations.
abstract: Compensators can be used as beam intensity modulation devices for intensity-modulated radiation therapy applications. In contrast with multileaf collimators, compensators introduce scatter and beam hardening into the therapeutic x-ray beam. The degree of scatter and beam filtering depends on the compensator material and beam energy. Pencil beam dose calculation models can be used to derive the shape of the compensator. In this study a novel way of incorporating the effect of compensator-induced scatter and beam filtration is presented. The study was conducted using 6, 8, and 15 MV polyenergetic pencil beams (PBs). The compensator materials that were studied included wax, brass, copper, and lead. The perturbation effects of the compensators on the PB dose profiles were built in the PB dose profiles and tested for regular fields containing a step compensator and benchmarked against DOSXYZnrc Monte Carlo calculated dose profiles. These effects include compensator beam filtration and Compton-scattered photons generated in the compensator materials that influence the resulting PB dose profiles. These data were obtained from DOSXYZnrc simulations. A Gaussian function was used to model off-axis scatter and an exponential function was used to model beam hardening at any radius, r. Dose profiles were calculated under a step compensator using the method that can model beam hardening and off-axis scatter, as well as a conventional method where the PB profiles are not adjusted, but a single effective attenuation coefficient is used instead to best match the dose profiles. Both sets of data were compared to the DOSXYZnrc data. Depth and profile dose data for 10 x 10 cm2 and 20 x 20 cm2 fields indicated that at 2 cm depth in water the method that takes compensator scatter into account agrees more closely with the DOSXYZnrc data compared to the data using only an effective attenuation coefficient. Further, it was found that the effective attenuation method can only replicate the DOSXYZnrc data at 10 cm depth where it was chosen to do so. At shallower depths the effective attenuation method overestimates the dose and beyond 10 cm depth it causes an underestimation in the dose. The scatter and beam hardening inclusion method does not exhibit such properties. The exclusion of scatter can lead to dose errors of up to 4 percent with a copper compensator at 5 cm depth for a 10 X 10 cm2 field under a thickness of 5 cm at 6 MV. For materials such as lead this discrepancy could be as high as 7 to 8 percent at 6 MV. For larger fields (20 X 20 cm2) the effect of in-phantom scatter reduces the differences between the dose profiles calculated with the mentioned methods.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein, 9300 South Africa. duplesf@fshealth.gov.za
authors.forename: F C P
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: du Plessis
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Willemse
mesh_terms: D001822:Body Burden; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000379:methods*; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity