Monte Carlo modelling of a virtual wedge

Compared with a set of physical photon wedges, a non-physical wedge (virtual or dynamic wedge), realized by a moving collimator jaw, offers an alternative that allows creation of a wedged field with any arbitrary wedge angle instead of the traditional four physical wedges (15 deg., 30 deg., 45 deg. and 60 deg.). It is commonly assumed that non-physical wedges do not alter the photon spectrum compared with physical wedges that introduce beam hardening and loss of dose uniformity in the unwedged direction. In this study, we investigated the influence of a virtual wedge on the photon spectra of a 6-10 MV Siemens MD2 accelerator with the Monte Carlo code EGS4/BEAM. Good agreement was obtained between calculated and measured lateral dose profiles at the depth of maximum dose and at 10 cm depth for 20x20cm2 fields for 6 and 10 MV photon beams. By comparing Monte Carlo models of a physical wedge and the virtual wedge that was studied in this work, it is confirmed that the latter has an insignificant effect on the beam quality, whereas the former can introduce significant beam hardening. (author)