Computational method for realistic estimates of the dose to active marrow

Calculation of absorbed dose to active marrow from photon radiation is a complex problem because electronic equilibrium may not exist in the vicinity of soft tissue-bone mineral interfaces. Snyder et al. recognized the intractable geometry of trabecular bone in their studies of photon transport in the body and formulated marrow dose estimates in a conservative manner. Other investigators have noted that this approach leads to overestimate by factors of 3 or more at low photon energy. In this paper the absorbed dose is formulated in terms of physical and anatomical parameters defining the energy deposition in the marrow space. 17 references, 2 figures, 1 table