Effect of dose-rate and leaf position tolerance on the point dose in step-and-shoot intensity-modulated radiation therapy / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effect of dose-rate and leaf position tolerance on the point dose in step-and-shoot intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT). Methods IMRT plans of 2 prostate cancer patients were selected and recalculated for a water phantom.An ionization chamber was used to measure the dose of some points in the phantom at five nominal dose-rates100 MU/min,200 MU/min,300 MU/min,400 MU/min and 500 MU/min.It was necessary to adiust the position of the water phantom to locate the ionization chamber in region where the dose gradient was very low in order to minimize the effect of dose gradient on the measured results.When measuring the effect of leaf position tolerance on point dose,the dose-rate was kept constant and the values of tolerance were 1 mm,2 mm,3 mm and 4 mm.This work was conducted on a Varian 23EX equipped with a Millennium 120-leaf multi-leat collimator(MLC).The treatment planning system was Varian Eclipse. Results As the dose-rate increased,the error between the measured dose and the calculated dose also enlarged.The difference between the maximum and the minimum was 1.2%.When MLC control system was working normally,tlle effect of leaf position tolerance on the measured point dose was very little and negligible. Conclusions The dose-rate must be selected suitably to ensure that the delivery can be finished in a short time with the radiobiological effect taking into account.It should be noted that the error between the measured dose and the calculated dose increases with the trend of inereasing more rapidly at higher dose rates.The value of leaf position tolerance should not be set too large,in order to minimize the difference between the measured dose and the planned dose in the region of steep gradient and find as early as possible when the multi-leaf collimator control system performs improperly.