title: Physical characterization and comparison of two commercially available micro-MLCs.
abstract: In this study, the physical characteristics (penumbra width variation with the source size and shape, interleaf leakage, transmission through the leaves, and the tongue-and-groove effect) of two linear accelerators (BrainLAB's Novalis and Elekta's Synergy-S Beam Modulator) have been investigated. For similar square fields (about 4.5 cm x 4.5 cm) with source-to-surface/skin-distance (SSD) ranging from 90 cm to 115 cm and measurements taken at the depth of D(max)=1.5 cm for 6 MV photon beam. The Novalis MLC has penumbra width of 2.4 ± 0.11 mm-2.8 ± 0.11 mm at the leaf-end and 2.2 ± 0.1 mm-2.7 ± 0.1 mm on the leaf-side; and those for the Synergy-S MLC are 4.4 ± 0.17 mm-5.2 ± 0.2 mm and 3.0 ± 0.12 mm-3.5 ± 0.12 mm. Upon rotating the Synergy-S collimator by 90 ° (i.e., shifting the leaf movement to the gun-target direction), significant reduction of the leaf-end penumbra width (17%) and increase of leaf-side penumbra width (28%) suggest an elliptical shape of the radiation source spot. Similar rotation of the collimator yielded reduction of the penumbras on both leaf-end (34%) and leaf-side (28%) for Novalis, indicating that the Novalis has a more symmetric source size. For all the field sizes and settings, BrainLAB's Novalis μMLC produce a smaller penumbra for simple square fields compared to the Elekta's Synergy-S. However, this difference became less pronounced for leaf-side penumbra and also for circular fields. The tongue-and-groove effect of the Novalis (23 ± 0.9%) is slightly smaller than that of the Synergy-S (25 ± 1%); while the interleaf leakage and leakage directly through leaves for Synergy-S (1.6 ± 0.07% & 0.9 ± 0.04%) are lower than that of Novalis (2 ± 0.08% & 1.3 ± 0.05%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Kimmel Cancer Center (NCI-designated), Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA. tarun.podder@jefferson.edu
authors.forename: Tarun K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Podder
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bednarz
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Galvin
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010315:Particle Accelerators / Q000295:instrumentation*; D017785:Photons; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D012107:Research Design