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FXG mass attenuation coefficient evaluation for radiotherapy routine

2004; IOP Publishing; Volume: 3; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1088/1742-6596/3/1/014

1742-6596

Manuel Moreira, Adelaide de Almeida, Rodrigo Tadeu Pereira da Costa, L Perles,

Advanced X-ray and CT Imaging

The knowledge of a radioactive beam energy or quality is important in radiotherapy once it is correlated with the type, size, and localization of the tumor. One indicative of the radiation quality is the half-value-layer (HVL), the material thickness which reduces the beam intensity to half. The analysis of a treatment beam spectrum can be inferred through its homogeneity coefficient (HC, ratio between the first and the second HVL) that for values ≥ 0.7 has the indication to be adequate for treatments. Another important indicator of radiation quality is the mass absorption coefficient (cm2/g), related to the photons energies absorbed in a particular exposed material. Once that several materials can be used as radiation detectors for X and γ dosimetry, this work has the purpose to verify the ferrous Xylenol gelatin (FXG) material performance, through its μ/ρ behavior and compare it with the μ/ρ behavior for soft tissue. The X and γ energies where selected, in the energies normally used in radiotherapy and their spectra were evaluated using the HC coefficient. The μ/ρ, for the FXG material, were obtained experimentally and from simulation with X-COM and a developed routine using the GEANT4 Library. From the results from all μ/ρ values obtained for the FXG material, when compared to those from water, one can see similar behaviors, when one considers measurements for energies greater than 78.0 keV. These results indicate that, once the human body is composed with ±80 % of water, the FXG for the energies used, could also be used as soft tissue simulator.