title: Effect of dosimeter type for commissioning small photon beams on calculated dose distribution in stereotactic radiosurgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of the detector used to commission small photon beams on the calculated dose distribution in stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, six types of detectors were used to characterize small photon beams: three diodes [a silicon stereotactic field diode SFD, a silicon diode SRS, and a silicon diode E], an ionization chamber CC01, and two types of radiochromic film models EBT and EBT2. These detectors were used to characterize circular collimated beams that were generated by a Novalis linear accelerator. This study was conducted in two parts. First, the following dosimetric data, which are of particular interest in SRS, were compared for the different detectors: the total scatter factor (TSF), the tissue phantom ratios (TPRs), and the off-axis ratios (OARs). Second, the commissioned data sets were incorporated into the treatment planning system (TPS) to compare the calculated dose distributions and the dose volume histograms (DVHs) that were obtained using the different detectors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The TSFs data measured by all of the detectors were in good agreement with each other within the respective statistical uncertainties: two exceptions, where the data were systematically below those obtained for the other detectors, were the CC01 results for all of the circular collimators and the EBT2 film results for circular collimators with diameters below 10.0 mm. The OAR results obtained for all of the detectors were in excellent agreement for all of the circular collimators. This observation was supported by the gamma-index test. The largest difference in the TPR data was found for the 4.0 mm circular collimator, followed by the 10.0 and 20.0 mm circular collimators. The results for the calculated dose distributions showed that all of the detectors passed the gamma-index test at 100% for the 3 mm/3% criteria. The aforementioned observation was true regardless of the size of the calculation grid for all of the circular collimators. Finally, the dose volume histogram results were independent of the size of the calculation grid used.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study showed that all of the studied detectors produced similar commissioned data sets for the TPS dose calculations. However, this result only validated the dose distribution calculation in the TPS and could not be used to assess the dose delivery to the target in which the TFS data were used to calculate the monitor units (the TFS data were not used in the TPS dose distribution calculation). Therefore, this study could not be used to determine the most accurate detector commissioning data set; however, all of the detectors exhibited superior performance for the relative dosimetry of small photon beams.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Física Médica, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía, Mexico City 14269, México and Centro de Investigación en Ciencia Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Unidad Legaria, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Legaria 694, México City 11500, México.
authors.forename: O A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: García-Garduño
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biofísica, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Mexico City 14080, México.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Ponce
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City 04510, Mexico.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gamboa-deBuen
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City 04510, Mexico.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Villafuerte
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Física Médica, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía, Mexico City 14269, México.
authors.forename: O O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Galván de la Cruz
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Ciencia Aplicada y Tecnología Avanzada, Unidad Legaria, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Legaria 694, México City 11500, México.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rivera-Montalvo
mesh_terms: D005373:Film Dosimetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D006257:Head / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D017785:Photons / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011859:Radiography; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water